Puppet MastersS


Snakes in Suits

Trump: Leadership of FBI & Justice Dept politicized investigative process to favor Democrats


RT
Fri, 02 Feb 2018 16:12 UTC
United States President Donald Trump
© Ron Sachs / Global Look PressUnited States President Donald Trump
US President Donald Trump has lashed out at the leadership and investigators at the FBI and the Justice Department, saying that they politicized "the sacred investigative process" in favor of Democrats and against Republicans.

The president attacked both authorities on Twitter by saying that their political bias is "something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago."
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Hourglass

Ex-CIA chief Panetta warns Trump's green light on FBI memo risks sparking 'constitutional crisis'


RT
Fri, 02 Feb 2018 17:21 UTC
Nunes
© Carlos Barria / ReutersChairman of the House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes at Capitol Hill, Washington, October 24, 2017.
Stark warnings continue to be issued over the White House's decision to release a Republican memo alleging FBI bias and surveillance abuse, with the latest coming from a former CIA director who forecast a "constitutional crisis."

Leon Panetta joined a chorus of protesting voices in an interview with MSNBC's Meet the Press show. He said recent developments surrounding the memo are a clear reminder that checks and balances failed to work properly.

"When that starts to break down, when the president says, 'I'm going to release it no matter what the FBI says, or what the Justice Department says,' then it creates what I consider a constitutional crisis," he said.

Comment:

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Stormtrooper

Erdogan's Bashibazouk marauders want to plunder Afrin


RT
Thu, 01 Feb 2018 17:09 UTC
The map shows the situation in Afrin canton in north-west Syria. The Turkish army and associated Takfiri militia (green) are trying to push the Syrian Kurds (yellow) out of the area.
Syrian Afrin Turkey battle situation
© South Front
What is claimed as newly Turkish conquered (light green arrows) on the map may overnight change back into Kurdish hands. This has happened several times over the last week. The fighting is quite intense (vid). The Kurds seem to have many anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) and the Turks have all the tools of a professional army plus a fanatic militia that serves as their infantry. These (vid) Turkish sponsored Takfiris in the Afrin area seem to come from various countries. One sings a Nasheed:
"...
We were steadfast in Grozny,
We were steadfast in Dagestan.
And we took Tora Bora as our den,
And we took Tora Bora as our den.
We made glory in Afrin and in sad Aleppo.
And Afrin is calling for us: 'Oh welcome good people.' "
Grozny and Dagestan, both in the Russian Federation, were devastated in wars against Takfiris. The Tora Bora caves in east-Afghanistan were al-Qaeda's stronghold before the U.S. waged war on the country.
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Wedding Rings

Home Office rejects recommendation to compel Muslim couples to register their Sharia marriages under UK civil law


RT
Fri, 02 Feb 2018 16:11 UTC
Muslim praying
© Olivia Harris / Reuters
The Home Office has resisted calls to compel Muslim couples to register their Sharia marriages under UK civil law, following the recommendations of a review launched by Theresa May into Sharia councils.

Announcing its findings on Thursday, the report recommended that Muslim couples should be compelled to register their Islamic marriage in a civil ceremony - or face fines from the UK government. The Home Office did not concur with this assessment.

The review was launched by then-Home Secretary Theresa May in 2016 in order to figure out if Islamic laws are misused or contravene UK law.

Siddiqui's report said that nearly all of those using Sharia councils were women, and in most cases they were seeking Islamic divorce.
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Calendar

Finally! House Intel Committee releases 'the memo' - here's what it says

Byron York
Washington Examiner
Fri, 02 Feb 2018 16:58 UTC
nunes
© AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
The House Intelligence Committee has released its controversial memo outlining alleged abuses of secret surveillance by the FBI and Justice Department in the Trump-Russia investigation. Here are some key points:
  • The Steele dossier formed an essential part of the initial and all three renewal FISA applications against Carter Page.
  • Andrew McCabe confirmed that no FISA warrant would have been sought from the FISA Court without the Steele dossier information.
  • The political origins of the Steele dossier were known to senior DOJ and FBI officials, but excluded from the FISA applications.
  • DOJ official Bruce Ohr met with Steele beginning in the summer of 2016 and relayed to DOJ information about Steele's bias. Steele told Ohr that he, Steele, was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected president and was passionate about him not becoming president.
The FBI and Justice Department mounted a months-long effort to keep the information outlined in the memo out of the House Intelligence Committee's hands. Only the threat of contempt charges and other forms of pressure forced the FBI and Justice to give up the material.

Comment: Here's the text:

370598711 House Intelligence Committee Report on FISA Abuses by RT America on Scribd


In other words, the memo confirms what we already knew. The dossier was the basis of the FISA spying, and the DOJ/FBI misrepresented their "intelligence" in order to get that spying set in motion. Kind of puts the Dems' fears about "national security" and "rule of law" in perspective, doesn't it?

That was a lot of hype for so little information. Which makes us wonder why the Dems, FBI and DOJ were so adamant that it not be released. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the only sources sharing the information that was later included in the memo were right-wing sources. By making such a big deal about the "secret memo", the MSM is forced to cover it.

See also:

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Bizarro Earth

Dems tone-deaf offering of a Clinton and a Kennedy - will they ever learn?

Maureen Callahan
The New York Post
Wed, 31 Jan 2018 16:49 UTC
Clinton Kennedy III
© GettyHillary Clinton and Joe Kennedy III
Meet the Democratic stars of 2020: a Clinton and a Kennedy.

Yes, the party of the people - the poor, the disenfranchised, the overworked and underpaid, the allies of Black Lives Matter and #MeToo - has two of its most entitled dynastic figures front and center.

Will they never learn?

Hours before President Trump's first State of the Union address, Hillary Clinton dumped a lengthy, cover-your-ass statement on Facebook. This, four days after news broke that Clinton refused to fire a known sexual harasser on her 2008 campaign despite a top female adviser encouraging her to do so.
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Info

Republican lawmakers pledge to pass reforms, applaud Trump's call to fire more federal employees

Eric Katz
GovExec
Fri, 02 Feb 2018 16:18 UTC
Barry Loudermilk
© Alex Brandon/APRep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., supports the president's call for accountability, and says he has the bill to make it happen.
Republican lawmakers with a history of proposing or passing civil service reforms applauded President Trump for his call to ease the firing of federal employees across government, saying they would fight to ensure the changes occur legislatively.

In his State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday night, Trump proposed expanding the authorities agency leaders have to fire problematic employees. The president cited as an example the Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act he signed last year, which made it easier for the VA secretary to discipline employees and shortened the appeal process.

"Tonight, I call on the Congress to empower every cabinet secretary with the authority to reward good workers, and to remove federal employees who undermine the public trust or fail the American people," Trump said.

Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., who chairs the House Veterans Affairs Committee and helped usher the 2017 law through the lower chamber, said he was pleased with the progress VA is making in enacting the measure and wants to see the reforms extended across government.

"Employees at VA and throughout the federal government want to work among the very best, and these accountability provisions have ensured that workers who don't live up to the high standards expected of those who serve America's veterans can be disciplined," Roe said. "I fully support President Trump's call to use the VA accountability bill as a model for instilling true accountability through the rest of the federal government, and I look forward to working with my colleagues in Congress to make this a reality."

Comment: Trump would do well to purge the more than just the VA...

For another perspective on Trump's policy, see: There's a radical idea buried in Trump's State of the Union. See also: VA criticized for patient neglect, unsanitary conditions, contractor self-dealing.

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Blackbox

Why are House Republicans retiring in droves?

Deirdre Shesgreen
USA Today
Thu, 01 Feb 2018 16:02 UTC
trey gowdy
© AP Photo
Forget running for re-election. House Republicans are running for the exits instead.

On Wednesday, South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy - chairman of the powerful House Oversight Committee - became the third GOP lawmaker in just the past week to announce plans to leave Congress at the end of this term.

All told, 41 Republican House members have said they will either retire or seek another office, compared to 16 Democrats, according to the House Press Gallery. Some of those lawmakers have been forced out amid sexual-harassment allegations, while others are running for governor or the Senate.

But at least nine are influential committee chairmen who, like Gowdy, are leaving with no scandal afoot. So what's pushing these gavel-wielding lawmakers out the House door?

A toxic stew of congressional dysfunction, perilous electoral prospects, term limits on committee chairmen and an increasingly rightward tilting party with a president widely seen as erratic at its helm.

Comment: In The Righteous Mind, Jonathan Haidt writes on the increasing polarization of American politics:
Things changed in the 1990s, beginning with new rules and new behaviors in Congress. Friendships and social contacts across party lines were discouraged. Once the human connections were weakened, it became easier to treat members of the other party as the permanent enemy rather than as fellow members of an elite club. Candidates began to spend more time and money on "oppo" (opposition research), in which staff members of paid consultants dig up dirt on opponents (sometimes illegally) and then shovel it to the media. As one elder congressman put it, "This is not a collegial body any more. It is more like gang behavior. Members walk into the chamber full of hatred."
It's no wonder that good legislators like Gowdy are jumping ship. With any luck, some bad apples will bow out too. But there's probably no getting around the intense polarization. That will continue.

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Snakes in Suits

Stunning admission: James Clapper admits Steele Dossier was used for FISA surveillance "extension"

Joshua Caplan
The Gateway Pundit
Thu, 01 Feb 2018 15:25 UTC
clapper
© CNN
In a stunning admission to CNN's Jake Tapper Wednesday, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper admitted the Steele dossier was used for an extension of FISA surveillance.

"As I understand it, this was simply an extension of the original FISA request. Meaning that, or implying, that apparently, there was information that was considered valuable that was being obtained, via the initial FISA request," Clapper told Tapper.
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Wall Street

Moscow prepares ruble for global expansion as dollar dependency drops


RT
Fri, 02 Feb 2018 14:04 UTC
Russian ruble
© Iliya Pitalev / Sputnik
The ruble can play a greater role in the former Soviet republics, according to the Central Bank of Russia. The Russian currency is seeking to compete with the US dollar in trade with the Eurasian Economic Union and CIS countries.

The country's central bank says by 2035 the ruble can expand in the EEU, a trade and political bloc uniting Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. It can also develop in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the bank says.

Ruble transactions in the EEU are currently worth the equivalent of US$69 billion, compared to US$18 billion and US$5 billion in euros. In the last six years, the share of ruble settlements in the EEU has increased from 56 to 75 percent, while the share of the dollar has decreased from 35 to 19 percent.

Comment: Further reading: Anti-Russian sanctions led to increased efficiency, lowering of debt and boon for manufacturing in the country

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