Second migrant caravan gathering in Guatemala, report says

Democrats scrambling to set up early voting booths at the southern border

On the other hand...

Carvan members hoping to board 'Beast' cargo train to border

Train through Mexico would cut trip time to U.S. in half; William La Jeunesse reports from alongside the migrants in Villa Comaltitlan, Mexico.

A second migrant caravan is forming at the Honduran border and is expected to follow the larger caravan of more than 7,000 from Central America towards the U.S.-Mexico border, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

The remaining migrants in the first group are about 1,100 miles from the border town of Reynosa, which is across from McAllen, Texas, the paper reported.

Guatemalan authorities on Sunday estimated the new group -- which gathered in a Guatemalan city near the border of Honduras -- to be at 1,000. But the group appears to be growing. The Journal, citing estimates from church-run charities and activists, reported that the group is now made up of about 2,500. By Monday evening the group had entered the eastern Guatemalan town of Chiquimula.

FILE: Honduran migrants walking to the U.S. start their day departing Chiquimula, Guatemala. (AP)

The new caravan reportedly plans to follow in the footsteps of the larger group, who passed through the southern Mexico border over the weekend. The group is believed to have begun its journey in San Pedro Sula, where the first caravan began with less than 200 participants.

CARAVAN OF MIGRANTS GROWS AHEAD OF PUSH INTO MEXICO

"We know this won't end in a few days and will be a long progress of migration," said a migrant shelter worker in Guatemala City, cited by Reuters.

The vast majority of the migrants are from Honduras are escaping crime and extreme poverty. Activists say migrants opt to travel in large numbers to avoid the dangers of crime and human traffickers.

President Trump told USA Today in an interview that "people from the Middle East” are among the thousands of migrants in the caravan, echoing remarks he made on Twitter Monday morning when he complained there were MS-13 gang "criminals and unknown Middle Easterners mixed in."

A spokesman from the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday said the agency could confirm that there are individuals in the caravan who are gang members or have significant criminal histories. The spokesman also confirmed Trump’s claim that some are citizens from outside Central America, like the Middle East.

Trump has declared the first migrant caravan a "national emergency" and has threatened to cut millions in aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras for their inability to stop migrants from "coming illegally to the U.S."

The three countries combined received more than $500 million in funding from the U.S. in the fiscal year 2017.

The report of the caravan comes on the heels of a surge in apprehensions of families at the southern border, which has given Trump a fresh talking point to rally his base ahead of next month's midterm elections.

Nearly a third of all people apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border during the budget year 2018 were families and children — about 157,248 out of 395,579 total apprehensions.

Second migrant caravan gathering in Guatemala, report says

Lisa Page bombshell: FBI couldn’t prove Trump-Russia collusion before Mueller appointment

By John Solomon

Opinion Contributor

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To date, Lisa Page’s infamy has been driven mostly by the anti-Donald Trump text messages she exchanged with fellow FBI agent Peter Strzok as the two engaged in an affair while investigating the president for alleged election collusion with Russia.

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So either Comey was complicit in the sabotage of Trump which I believe to be the case or the most inept asshole on the planet Earth. So we're left with this. The greatest punishment paid for those who tried to rig an American presidential election (so far) is termination or resignation? That's it...no jail time!

Is this a great country or what. 

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Yet, when history judges the former FBI lawyer years from now, her most consequential pronouncement may not have been typed on her bureau-issued Samsung smartphone to her colleague and lover.

Rather, it might be eight simple words she uttered behind closed doors during a congressional interview a few weeks ago.

“It’s a reflection of us still not knowing,” Page told Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) when questioned about texts she and Strzok exchanged in May 2017 as Robert Mueller was being named special counsel to take over the Russia investigation.

With that statement, Page acknowledged a momentous fact: After nine months of using some of the most awesome surveillance powers afforded to U.S. intelligence, the FBI still had not made a case connecting Trump or his campaign to Russia’s election meddling.

Page opined further, acknowledging “it still existed in the scope of possibility that there would be literally nothing” to connect Trump and Russia, no matter what Mueller or the FBI did.

“As far as May of 2017, we still couldn’t answer the question,” she said at another point.

I reached out to Page's lawyer, Amy Jeffress, on Friday. She declined to answer questions about her client’s cooperation with Congress.

It might take a few seconds for the enormity of Page’s statements to sink in. After all, she isn’t just any FBI lawyer. She was a lead on the Russia case when it started in summer 2016, and she helped it transition to Mueller through summer 2017.

For those who might cast doubt on the word of a single FBI lawyer, there’s more.

Shortly after he was fired, ex-FBI Director James Comey told the Senate there was not yet evidence to justify investigating Trump for colluding with Russia. “When I left, we did not have an investigation focused on President Trump,” Comey testified.

And Strzok, the counterintelligence boss and leader of the Russia probe, texted Page in May 2017 that he was reluctant to join Mueller’s probe and leave his senior FBI post because he feared “there’s no big there, there.”

The Department of Justice (DOJ) inspector general asked Strzok shortly before he was fired from the FBI what he meant by that text, and he offered a most insightful answer.

Strzok said he wasn’t certain there was a “broad, coordinated effort” to hijack the election and that the evidence of Trump campaign aides talking about getting dirt on Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton from Russians might have been just a “bunch of opportunists” talking to heighten their importance.

Strzok added that, while he raised the idea of impeachment in some of his texts to Page, “I am, again, was not, am not convinced or certain that it will,” he told the inspector general.

So, by the words of Comey, Strzok and Page, we now know that the Trump Justice Department — through Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein — unleashed the Mueller special counsel probe before the FBI could validate a connection between Trump and Russia.

Which raises the question: If there was no concrete evidence of collusion, why did we need a special counsel?

Page’s comments also mean FBI and Justice officials likely leaked a barrage of media stories just before and after Mueller’s appointment that made the evidence of collusion look far stronger than the frontline investigators knew it to be. Text messages show contacts between key FBI and DOJ players and The Washington Post, The Associated Press and The New York Times during the ramp-up to Mueller’s probe.

And that means the news media — perhaps longing to find a new Watergate, to revive sagging fortunes — were far too willing to be manipulated by players in a case that began as a political opposition research project funded by Clinton's campaign and led by a former British intelligence agent, Christopher Steele, who despised Trump.

Finally, Page’s statement signals that the nation’s premier intelligence court may not have been given a complete picture of the evidence — or lack thereof — as it approved an extraordinary surveillance intrusion into an American presidential nominee’s campaign just weeks before Election Day.

There was no fault to the FBI checking whether Trump was compromised by Russia; that is a classic counterintelligence responsibility.

The real fault lies in those leaders who allowed a secret investigation to mushroom into a media maelstrom driven by leaks that created a story that far exceeded the evidence, and then used that false narrative to set a special counsel flying downhill ahead of his skis.

No matter where Mueller ends his probe, it is now clear the actions that preceded his appointment turned justice on its head, imposing the presumption of guilt upon a probe whose own originators had reason to doubt the strength of their evidence.

Lisa Page bombshell: FBI couldn’t prove Trump-Russia collusion before Mueller appointment

Rosie (The voluptuous)...ready for 3rd walk down the aisle

Let's pray no one leaks a sex tape of the honeymoon.

Rosie O’Donnell is engaged.

A representative for the 56-year-old star confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter the news of her engagement to police officer and girlfriend of a year, Elizabeth Rooney.

According to People.com, the former View co-host revealed that a wedding date has not been set. 

Speculation of an engagement was first made public earlier this month when Rooney updated her Instagram bio to include the letter 'R' with a ring emoji next to the letter, which was reported by Radar Online. 

O’Donnell has been married twice before: to Michelle Rounds from 2012-2015, who died of an apparent suicide in September 2017; and Kelli Carpenter, whose marriage to the actress was annulled in 2004. O'Donnell shares four children with ex-wife Carpenter and one child with Rounds.

Rosie (The voluptuous)...ready for 3rd walk down the aisle

Another place... Another time

Another place... Another time

Saudi officials planned Khashoggi's killing days before his death, Erdogan says

As you're reading this be mindful Erdogan's track record is no better than the Saudi's.

Trump not satisfied with explanation of Khashoggi's killing

President Trump sends top intelligence officials to Turkey as Turkish President Erdogan prepares to announce his country's findings into the death of Jamal Khashoggi; insight from former CIA station chief Daniel Hoffman.

Saudi officials planned the savage murder of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi days before his death, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday.

Erdogan revealed the details of the country’s investigation into Khashoggi’s killing after he walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Erdogan laid out a timeline of the events before and after Khashoggi’s death, including the use of a “body double” as a decoy.

Three people flew from Riyadh to Istanbul at around 4:30 p.m. local time on Oct. 1 and went to the hotel and later to the Saudi consulate, Erdogan said, according to Sky News. Another team went from the consulate to Belgrave woods and Yelova, near the consulate, to scout the area, he said.

The next day, Erdogan said, a team of about 15 Saudis met at the consulate between 9:50 a.m. and 11 a.m. He said the team took out the “hard disc” from the consulate’s CCTV and called Khashoggi to let him know he had a meeting at the consulate later in the day.

Khashoggi arrived at the consulate at around 1:08 p.m. local time and was never seen again, Erdogan said. Almost five hours later, Khashoggi’s fiancé alerted authorities that he had been detained or worse.

In his speech, Erdogan suggested Khashoggi was the victim of a “gruesome murder” and said there could be no cover-up.

“I do not doubt the sincerity of King Salman. That being said, independent investigation needs to be carried out. This is a political killing,” Erdogan said, adding Khashoggi’s death was meticulously planned.

Erdogan fell short of blaming Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and made no mention of whether a tape exists of Khashoggi's killing. Instead, he said Turkey would only be satisfied once everyone is penalized.

"Trying to blame a few members of the intelligence community will not satisfy us or the international community. It will be satisfactory only when everyone responsible for this is penalized," he said.

Erdogan’s comments contradicted Saudi Arabia’s claim the columnist died in a “fistfight.” Saudi Arabia said 18 Saudis were arrested and several top intelligence officials were fired over the killing.

President Trump said Monday he wasn’t satisfied with the explanations he’s heard about the killing of Khashoggi and was waiting for reports from U.S. officials returning from the region.

“We're going to get to the bottom of it. We have people over in Saudi Arabia now. We have top intelligence people in Turkey. They're coming back either tonight or tomorrow,” Trump told the media before leaving a rally in Texas.

Saudi officials planned Khashoggi's killing days before his death, Erdogan says