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Breaking: Tony Podesta quits Podesta Group amid Mueller inquiry

Anna Palmer
Politico
Mon, 30 Oct 2017 18:05 UTC
Red shoes Tony Podesta
Democratic power lobbyist Tony Podesta, founder of the Podesta Group, is stepping down from the firm that bears his name after coming under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Podesta announced his decision during a firm-wide meeting Monday morning and is alerting clients of his impending departure.

Podesta is handing over full operational and financial control to longtime firm CEO Kimberley Fritts, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the meeting. Fritts and a senior group of the Podesta team will be launching a new firm in the next one or two days. Sources said the transition has been in the works for the past several months.

"[Tony] was very magnanimous and said, "This is an amazing group of people," a source said of Podesta's remarks. Podesta also told staff he "doesn't intend to go quietly, or learn how to play golf." He said he "needs to fight this as an individual, but doesn't want the firm to fight it."

Fritts also addressed the gathering, telling staff that she is "thrilled at this opportunity" and that, "This is not about me, this is about y'all." Several other senior staff spoke about their excitement about the future of the firm. The meeting ended with a resounding ovation for Podesta.
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Map

Germany looking for new allies - turns to Russia

George Friedman
Mauldin Economics
Mon, 23 Oct 2017 17:52 UTC
putin merkel
© REUTERS/ Kai Pfaffenbach
A delegation of executives from major German corporations recently met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Such delegations are not unusual. Sometimes it is routine, sometimes a courtesy. But occasionally, it has significance. In the case of Russia-Germany relations, such meetings are always potentially significant.

Germany's Unsteady Relations

Two relationships are critical to Germany.

One is with the European Union, the other is with the United States. Neither relationship is stable right now. Brexit, the Spanish crisis, Germany feuding with Poland and the unsolved economic problems of southern Europe are tearing the European Union apart.

The Germans and the EU apparatus claim that none of these threaten the bloc. In fact, almost a decade after 2008, Europe appears to be achieving very modest economic growth. But the Germans know the dangers that lie ahead, even if Brussels does not.

Many of the EU's problems are political, not economic. (I wrote about the inherent weakness of Europe in my free e-book, The World Explained in Maps, which you can find here)

Comment: See also: When Germany turns to Russia the US 'Deep State' will lose Europe

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USA

Congressional Republicans want answers from Wasserman Schultz, Podesta about Trump dossier money


Fox News
Sun, 29 Oct 2017 17:36 UTC
podesta
© Adrees Latif / Reuters John Podesta
Congressional Republicans on Sunday called for Democrats John Podesta and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz to provide further answers about their party paying for a dossier on President Trump's alleged ties to Russia, after telling Senate investigators last month that they had no knowledge of such payments.

Wasserman Schultz is the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and Podesta was the chairman of Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. Both groups purportedly paid millions for research that led to the dossier, The Washington Post reported last week.

South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, suggested on "Fox News Sunday" that the DNC paying a law firm for so-called opposition research connected to the dossier was tantamount to money laundering.

wasserman schultz
Debbie Wasserman Schultz

Comment: See:

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Eye 2

Neocon Bill Kristol tied to Free Beacon hiring Fusion GPS to dig up dirt on Trump


True Pundit
Mon, 30 Oct 2017 17:38 UTC
Bill kristol Matthew Continetti Trump
© True PunditBill Kristol and Matthew Continetti
Never-Trump Loudmouth Bill Kristol is among high profile GOP elite linked to the the Washington Free Beacon's hiring of Fusion GPS to dig up dirt on Donald Trump during the 2016 election.

Lawyers for the Free Beacon disclosed Friday to the House Intelligence Committee of its role in commissioning the embattled Fusion GPS research firm to dig up dirt on Trump.

Free Beacon commissioned the project through spring 2016. The editor of the paper, Matthew Continetti apologized Friday for the news group's hiring of Fusion GPS.

Comment: How to drain the swamp when the size of it keeps growing?

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Shoe

Deposed Catalan President Puigdemont allegedly fled to Belgium to avoid prosecution by Madrid - UPDATE: Confirmed

Adam Garrie
The Duran
Mon, 30 Oct 2017 00:00 UTC
deposed Catalan President Carles Puigdemont
Spain's Attorney General Jose Manuel Maza has told local media that Madrid plans to file charges against deposed Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and his deputies, in the aftermath of declaring Catalonia a sovereign republic.

Many openly suspect that the deposed Catalan leadership will be charged with "rebellion", which in Spain can carry a 30 year prison sentence. Additionally, it is thought that the Catalan leaders will also be charged with sedition and embezzlement by Madrid.

Spanish media have also reported that Puigdemont has fled to Brussels in order to avoid prosecution.

Comment: Puigdemont appeared in Brussels along with other members of his cabinet at the same time that Spanish Attorney General Jose Manuel Maza filed a lawsuit against the secessionist leaders on charges of rebellion, sedition and embezzlement. RT reports:
Puigdemont did not go to the Catalonian regional Government Palace on Monday, even though he earlier vowed to "continue working to build a free country" in defiance of Madrid's decision to sack his government and suspend Catalonia's independence, which he said went against the will of the people.

On Monday morning, he posted a photo of the Catalan parliamentary palace, but did not appear there. Later, the Catalan media reported that the sacked regional leader turned up in Brussels alongside with some other members of his cabinet. The Spanish authorities soon confirmed that Puigdemont had indeed traveled to the Belgian capital.
...
Catalonia's El Periodico newspaper reported that Puigdemont allegedly traveled to Brussels to meet with Flemish politicians. Two days ago Flanders, the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium, expressed its solidarity with the Catalans in their drive for independence.

Belgian Immigration Minister Theo Francken did not rule out granting asylum to Puigdemont if he applies. The minister called such an outcome "not unrealistic" on Sunday.

His statement, however, provoked a backlash from Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, who said that giving political asylum to Puigdemont is "absolutely not on the agenda." He also urged Francken "not to fan the flames."


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Binoculars

The Manafort indictment is a sign that the Russiagate investigation is over, found nothing

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Mon, 30 Oct 2017 16:55 UTC
mueller manafort
As widely predicted, Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russiagate probe has now formally indicted Paul Manafort, Donald Trump's former campaign manager, in what the media is calling the 'first indictment' in the Russiagate investigation.

Manafort was warned at the time of the search of his home that he would be indicted so the news of the indictment is not surprising.

The timing of the indictment does however raise some interesting questions.

It comes after what was in all other respects a disastrous two weeks for the true believers in the Russiagate conspiracy with the revelation that the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign financed the 'research' which resulted in the Trump Dossier, and with mounting claims that (as I had previously suspected) the now notorious meeting between Donald Trump Junior and the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya was indeed a sting set up by Fusion GPS, the intermediary company used by the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign to fund the Trump Dossier.

In light of this there has to be some suspicion that the decision to press charges against Manafort and one of his aides now was intended at least in part to distract attention from the revelations and to regain control of the Russiagate narrative, which has been increasingly falling apart.

What reinforces this suspicion is that news of the indictment was leaked - disgracefully - to the media over the weekend even though the indictment had been sealed by a Federal Judge.

Comment: Trump tweets:



See also:

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Pirates

US protectionism bears down on Europe in form of economic war


Sputnik
Sun, 29 Oct 2017 15:55 UTC
America EU flags
© AP Photo/ Virginia Mayo
Former French President Francois Hollande has berated Donald Trump for pursuing protectionist policies. Speaking to Sputnik, French analysts said that the US often used "hidden protectionism" even before Trump was elected and that EU countries are just starting to determine strategies for resisting competition from American multinationals.

Marc German, a specialist in competitive intelligence and enterprise diplomacy, told Sputnik France that Trump "loudly declares the protectionism of the American economy."

"But his battle cry, which boils down to the slogan 'America first', is in fact an unwritten preamble to the American Constitution. And we have been seeing this for two centuries already!" German added.

Comment: It's reasonable that any given country should look to protect their interests. However, what the US does is exploit, divide, and strong-arm other nations (and its own people) to maintain power. This dynamic is ultimately unsustainable and some things at some point will give. We can already see the world changing in terms of the 'balance of power'. Russia is overcoming US influence both within its own borders as well as in the Middle East. China's massive One Belt One Road project is presenting a geopolitical and geo-economic shift toward a united Eurasia. The question remains if Europe is destined for the same fate as the US, or can it overcome its destructive Western foundation and build toward the future?

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Stock Up

Why Russia's economy is bigger than its official GDP is telling us

Patrick Armstrong
Oriental Review
Mon, 18 Sep 2017 16:34 UTC
Moscow International Business Center
Moscow International Business Center
"Why Russia - a country with less money than Canada and fewer people than Nigeria - runs the world now" wondered the Canadian newspaper National Post in January. The piece doesn't give useful answers: nuclear weapons, good diplomacy, yes, but also the usual claptrap about "ruthlessness" and "Abandon[ing] economic worries to double down on efforts to grab geopolitical status"; in short only a brute lashing out in delirium tremens. The editors should better have wondered whether the headline even made sense: the first point is wrong and the second irrelevant. But, like so much of what passes for analysis in the Western media, it's written backwards: it's decision-based evidence-making.

Talking about the relative insignificance of Russia's GDP is an old game: Wikipedia says Canada's GDP is greater than Russia's and Germany's is about two and a half times greater. These comparisons all assume that the price of the ruble in US dollars is a measurement of Russia's production; a mere tweak in the relative exchange therefore knocks Russia from Number 8 down to below Spain according to Business Insider in 2014. Easy to calculate, easy to write, these head-nodders are just feel-good junk: Russians don't actually eat dollars, they don't buy their necessities with them and they won't have to eat grass and Putin speeches when a ruble buys fewer USDs.
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Handcuffs

Judge says Trump's anti-Bergdahl comments will not influence trial, but will be considered mitigating factor in sentencing

Greg Lacour
Reuters
Mon, 30 Oct 2017 16:44 UTC
bergdahl
The military judge hearing U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl's desertion case said on Monday he would not rule out a prison sentence due to the possible influence of President Donald Trump's criticism of the soldier.

Army Colonel Jeffery Nance said he would consider the president's remarks as a mitigating factor at sentencing, however, raising the possibility of a lighter punishment.

During last year's presidential campaign, Republican Trump called Bergdahl "a no-good traitor who should have been executed." The defense said the president's more recent remarks about the case showed his opinion of Bergdahl had not changed and unfairly influenced the proceedings.

Nance ruled in court at North Carolina's Fort Bragg, where Bergdahl's sentencing hearing is underway, that no reasonable person would harbor doubt about the integrity of the proceedings due to Trump's comments.

"I am uninfluenced by the president's comments," said Nance, later adding, "However, I will consider the president's comments as mitigating factors."

Comment: Curious minds would probably like to hear more about Bergdahl's defense. What "critical problems in his chain of command" was he intending to bring to light?

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Folder

The only ones who colluded with Russia were the DNC, the Obama administration and Hillary, not Trump!

Alex Christoforou
The Duran
Sat, 28 Oct 2017 16:08 UTC
The Russiagate Trump collusion was a complete hoax...pure projection from the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign.

They had paid a British washed up spy to go to Moscow and pay off various washed up Russian "agents", to fabricate tall tales about Trump and Putin.

It was a complete misdirection campaign that resulted in a weakening of American credibility and complete embarrassment for every single liberal troll who pushed the Russiagate story forward.

Comment: Goes to show how completely ridiculous the whole thing is. For more on Russiagate, see:

The Russia-gate story is jumping the shark
Russia-gate's groupthink totalitarian style

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