A suspicious package was addressed to Joe Biden. The former VP is no longer a Secret Service protectee who’s mail is routinely screened.
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Friday, October 26, 2018
Wednesday, October 24, 2018
Pipe bombs sent to top Democrats, CNN an 'act of terror': NYC mayor
More questions than answers here. If a Conservative/Conservatives are responsible it's awfully stupid! What nitwit thinks Clinton, Obama, (and other liberal 'elites') collect their own mail? They're casting far more harm on the party/Trump than any perceived good... not to mention they must be out of their mind. That said three things puzzle me.
1. Why now...nearing the midterms..coincidence?
2. So far no one has been harmed. Not one bomb has gone off. Why?
3. What party stands to benefit from this? Certainly not Republicans!
So I ask would it be a stretch to believe some Liberal, probably someone from Antifa, is perpetrating this to undermine Republicans just in time for the midterms?
Could I be wrong?
Wouldn't be the first time.
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WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Police intercepted suspected pipe bombs sent to former U.S. President Barack Obama, former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and other high-profile Democrats on Wednesday, in what New York officials described as an act of terrorism.
The CNN bureau in New York also received a device looking like a pipe bomb, leading police to evacuate the building, as did the office of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat. CNN reported that Eric Holder, who was U.S. Attorney General under former President Barack Obama, was also among those targeted.
“This clearly is an act of terror attempting to undermine our free press and leaders of this country through acts of violence,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told a news conference.
With the country deeply polarized under President Donald Trump, the packages brought a new level of tension to Nov.6 political contests that will decide whether Democrats can challenge the majorities now held by Trump’s Republicans in Congress.
A similar pipe bomb was delivered earlier this week to the home of George Soros, a major Democratic Party donor.
There has been no claim of responsibility.
All of the targets are frequently disparaged by right-wing critics and Trump, whose spokeswoman condemned the acts.
“Our condemnation of these despicable acts certainly includes threats made to CNN as well as current or former public servants. These cowardly acts are unacceptable and won’t be tolerated,” Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Twitter.
(L-R) U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Democratic Party donor George Soros and former U.S. President Barack Obama are pictured in a combination photograph made from Reuters file photos. REUTERS/Gretchen Ertl/Kamil Krzaczynski/Luke MacGregor/Siphiwe Sibeko/Files
Alexander Soros, the son of George Soros, said in an opinion piece published by The New York Times that his father had long faced verbal criticism and threats over his involvement in politics, “but something changed in 2016” when Trump was elected.
“Before that, the vitriol he faced was largely confined to the extremist fringes, among white supremacists and nationalists who sought to undermine the very foundations of democracy. But with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, things got worse,” Alexander Soros wrote.
He placed direct responsibility with those who sent the devices, but added: “I cannot see it divorced from the new normal of political demonization that plagues us today.”
PACKAGES RECOVERED
The package to Clinton was found late on Tuesday while the one addressed to Obama was recovered early on Wednesday, both during routine off-site mail screenings, the Secret Service said. Obama and Clinton were not at risk, they said.
Police intercepted what appeared to be a live explosive device and an envelope containing white powder at the Time Warner Center, where the CNN newsroom in New York is based, Police Commissioner James O’Neill told the news conference. Experts were analyzing whether the powder was a dangerous substance, he said.
In the weeks following the attacks of September 11, 2001, anthrax spores were mailed to news media offices and two U.S. senators, killing five people and infecting 17 others.
CNN is a frequent target of Trump, who routinely calls the news media the “enemy of the people” and belittles critical coverage as “fake news.”
Officials said the package received by CNN was addressed to former CIA director John Brennan, a periodic guest commentator on the cable network.
Brennan has been an outspoken critic of Trump, calling the president’s performance during a July joint news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki “nothing short of treasonous.”
Media reported that other mailed devices had also been intercepted, apparently with the return address of U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a former Democratic Party national chairwoman.
Wasserman Schultz’s office was evacuated after a suspicious package arrived in the mail, WFOR-TV in Miami reported, citing Sunrise police. CNN said the package was meant for Holder but sent to the wrong address and returned to Wasserman Schultz’s office.
A source familiar with the matter earlier said a suspicious package addressed to the White House had also been intercepted, but soon after said that information was wrong.
Second migrant caravan gathering in Guatemala, report says
Democrats scrambling to set up early voting booths at the southern border
On the other hand...
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.
"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.
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
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.
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.
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