Baker Notable?

Rod Rosenstein Impeachment Plans Drawn Up: Report

Sat, 07/14/2018 - 08:59

House GOP members led by Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (NC) have drawn up articles of impeachment against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, according to Politico.

Conservative sources say they could file the impeachment document as soon as Monday, as Meadows and Freedom Caucus founder Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) look to build Republican support in the House. One source cautioned, however, that the timing was still fluid. -Politico

GOP legislators could also try to hold Rosenstein in contempt of Congress prior to actual impeachment.

The knives have been out for Rosenstein for weeks, as Congressional investigators have repeatedly accused the DOJ of "slow walking" documents related to their investigations. Frustrated lawmakers have been given the runaround - while Rosenstein and the rest of the DOJ are hiding behind the argument that the materials requested by various Congressional oversight committees would potentially compromise ongoing investigations.

In late June, Rosenstein along with FBI Director Christopher Wray clashed with House Republicans during a fiery hearing over an internal DOJ report criticizing the FBI's handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation by special agents who harbored extreme animus towards Donald Trump while expressing support for Clinton. Republicans on the panel grilled a defiant Rosenstein on the Trump-Russia investigation which has yet to prove any collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.

“This country is being hurt by it. We are being divided,” Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) said of Mueller’s investigation. “Whatever you got,” Gowdy added, “Finish it the hell up because this country is being torn apart.”

Rosenstein pushed back - dodging responsibility for decisions made by subordinates while claiming that Mueller was moving "as expeditiously as possible," and insisting that he was "not trying to hide anything."

“We are not in contempt of this Congress, and we are not going to be in contempt of this Congress,” Rosenstein told lawmakers.

Republicans, meanwhile, approved a resolution on the House floor demanding that the DOJ turn over thousands of requested documents by July 6. And while the DOJ did provide Congressional investigators with access to a trove of documents, House GOP said the document delivery was incomplete, according to Fox News.

That didn't impress Congressional GOP.

READ MORE:

https:// www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-14/rod-rosenstein-impeachment-plans-drawn-report

Trump Security Scare As Paraglider Swoops In Within Yards Of Elite Snipers

at, 07/14/2018 - 12:09

President Trump had to rush inside of his Turnberry golf course as a Greenpeace activist in a paraglider swooped in with a sign that read "Trump well below par #RESIST".

The man began his three mile flight across the Ayrshire countryside at 9:30 p.m. just after Trump arrived at the course, flying under the noses of Trump's elite snipers before circling the lawn in front of the Turnberry hotel where President Trump will be staying this weekend.

Police Scotland's Assistant Mark Williams said that authorities are looking for the pilot: "We are aware a powered parachute was flown in close proximity of the Turnberry Hotel earlier this evening," adding "It is a criminal offence to fly within the airspace restriction zone and officers are carrying out enquiries to trace the pilot."

British MP Liam Fox, who welcomed Trump to the UK at Stansted Airport on Thursday, said that the demonstrators were an embarrassment to themselves - telling BBC News: "The President has his own way of expressing himself and I don't think the protesters were an embarrassment to the Government. I think they were an embarrassment to themselves."

"I think that when you have the President of the United States, the leader of the free world being greeted with signs that say 'go home, we hate you', I don't think that reflects the good manners and hospitality of the British people."

Thousands of protesters took to the streets this week in protest of Trump's visit. Asked about the hostility he faced, Trump said "They can call me whatever they like. They can have their opinion and I haven’t offended them but they seem intent of offending me."

Before his first round of golf, Trump tweeted "I have arrived in Scotland and will be at Trump Turnberry for two days of meetings, calls and hopefully, some golf - my primary form of exercise! The weather is beautiful, and this place is incredible! Tomorrow I go to Helsinki for a Monday meeting with Vladimir Putin.

https:// www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-14/trump-security-scare-paraglider-swoops-within-yards-elite-snipers

Gaza Escalation: 40 Israeli Airstrikes Overnight, Hamas Mortars, Fires In Southern Israel

Sat, 07/14/2018 - 11:10

Tensions along the Israel-Gaza Strip border escalated dramatically on Saturday with an intense exchange of fire between Palestinian militants and Israeli security forces, including Israeli air force strikes inside Gaza, which reportedly targeted underground tunnels which Israel says are designed to launch attacks.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) cited 31 rockets fired from the Strip overnight to which Israel responded with airstrikes on 40 targets including Hamas' battalion headquarters, in a flare-up of hostilities officials are calling the biggest attack since Operation Protective Edge in 2014. Amazingly, however, no serious casualties were reported on either side, according to Bloomberg.

Hamas, for its part, claimed 15 sites struck withing Israel, saying in an official statement the rocket launches were meant to "force the enemy to stop the escalation." Both Hamas officials and Palestinian activists say Israeli security has deliberately targeted civilian protesters along the border fence which has left hundreds dead and wounded, which the United Nations is currently investigating.

In response, Israel claims the civilian protesters are being deliberately used as human shields - including women and children - ordered by Hamas military officials to go to the front lines where they know they could be shot. Since March, Gaza officials have counted over 140 Gazans killed almost 2000 wounded by Israeli live fire.

Israeli military statements further said the significant overnight airstrikes on Hamas positions were in response to a series of arson attacks as well as assaults on Israeli solders.

There's been a significant uptick in so-called 'kite bombs' and 'arson balloons' since early summer. Israeli authorities have attributed a recent spate of fires ravaging farmlands to the low-tech kites and "arson balloons" which have resulted in over 400 fires burning more than 6,000 acres, according to a spokesman for Israel's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

On Thursday, Israeli media reports counted 21 fires originating in a single day due to burning kites launched from Gaza, impacting farmlands in southern Israel.

Since the 'Great March of Return' protests, which started along the Israeli-Gaza border fence in late March, explosive and incendiary devices have been used to target farmlands in southern Israel. Large kites or collections of balloons will typically be released while carrying burning items attached by a long cord. They've also been dubbed 'Molotov cocktail kites' and have become the latest improvised means of getting around Israel's high-tech air defense systems.

https:// www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-14/gaza-escalation-40-israeli-airstrikes-overnight-hamas-mortars-fires-southern-israel

Trump Responds To Russia Indictment: "Where Is The DNC Server? Why Didn't Obama Do Something?"

Sat, 07/14/2018 - 09:41

President Trump issued his first public comment about the indictment of 12 Russian military officers "for conspiring to interfere with the 2016 presidential election" by blaming former President Obama and the "deep state" and asking, as many others have, where the DNC server, the so-called "Exhibit A" in the case against the Russian hackers, is currently.

On Saturday morning, Trump tweeted from Scotland that "The stories you heard about the 12 Russians yesterday took place during the Obama Administration, not the Trump Administration" and asked “why didn’t they do something about it, especially when it was reported that President Obama was informed by the FBI in September, before the Election?" As one of his last acts as president, late in December 2016 and over a month after Trump had won the election, Obama issued sanctions against Russia for the meddling. He also expelled 35 Russian diplomats from the U.S. and ordered two Russian compounds to be closed.

On Friday afternoon, the DOJ announced the indictment of 12 Russian intel officials who are charged with hacking Democratic National Committee officials and dispersing the stolen documents online. However, as explicitly stated in the indictment, there was "no indication that any American was a knowing participant in this activity, and no indication that these efforts altered the vote count in any way", something Trump has repeatedly noted.

Trump then went on to question "where is the DNC Server, and why didn’t the FBI take possession of it?” He suggested that the server could have been kept hidden by the “Deep State.”

Trump has suggested in the past a conspiracy around the computer servers at the DNC that Russians hacked during the election. The FBI had not directly assessed the hacked server during the agency investigation, instead relying on information from a private security firm, with deep Ukrainian ties.

Separately, as part of his Saturday tweetstorm, Trump again attacked "the Fake News CNN" saying that he checked it "first time in a long time (they are dying in the ratings), to see if they covered my takedown yesterday of Jim Acosta (actually a nice guy). They didn’t! But they did say I already lost in my meeting with Putin. Fake News…."

He then unveiled his latest nickname, that of CNN president Jeff Zucker, saying "Remember, it was Little Jeff Z and his people, who are told exactly what to say, who said I could not win the election in that “there was no way to 270” (over & over again) in the Electoral College. I got 306! They were sooooo wrong in their election coverage. Still hurting!"

READ MORE:

https:// www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-14/trump-responds-russia-indictment-where-dnc-server-why-didnt-obama-do-something

>>2153766

More reason to do so building fast.

>>2153782

Consider the snipers could have just as easily used this guy for a skeet shoot and blown him away into a 1000 pieces like a clay bird.

Consider they did not.

Do you know why?

Potus Trolling FakeNews Media

Trump tweets, hits links during stay at Scottish golf resort

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — Two days before a high-stakes summit with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, President Donald Trump spent part of Saturday playing golf and tweeting about his predecessor and a U.S.-based cable television network he accuses of covering him unfairly.

Aides had said Trump would spend the weekend preparing for Monday’s meeting with Putin in Helsinki.

“I have arrived in Scotland and will be at Trump Turnberry for two days of meetings, calls and hopefully, some golf - my primary form of exercise!” he tweeted early Saturday, referencing his seaside golf resort. “The weather is beautiful, and this place is incredible! Tomorrow I go to Helsinki for a Monday meeting with Vladimir Putin.”

In Saturday’s tweets, Trump cast blame on former President Barack Obama for failing to stop Russian election meddling. It was Trump’s first response to indictments announced Friday in Washington against 12 Russian military intelligence officers who allegedly hacked into the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democratic rival, and the Democratic Party, and released tens of thousands of emails in a sweeping Kremlin conspiracy to help Trump win the 2016 election.

“The stories you heard about the 12 Russians yesterday took place during the Obama Administration, not the Trump Administration,” Trump tweeted, asking why they didn’t “do something about it, especially when it was reported that President Obama was informed by the FBI in September, before the Election?”

Trump denies that he or any campaign aides were involved with the Russian campaign. He repeatedly dismisses the ongoing investigation that produced Friday’s indictments as a “witch hunt.”

Trump on Saturday also mocked CNN President Jeff Zucker as “Little Jeff Z” and knocked its election coverage following a spat with a CNN correspondent at a news conference Friday in England.

“So funny! I just checked out Fake News CNN, for the first time in a long time (they are dying in the ratings), to see if they covered my takedown yesterday of Jim Acosta (actually a nice guy). They didn’t!” Acosta had objected to Trump dismissing the news outlet as “fake news.” In fact, CNN did cover the exchange of words and interviewed Acosta on air about what happened.

Trump said he plans to raise election meddling with Putin when they meet Monday at the Finnish presidential palace in Helsinki, but has also said he doesn’t expect Putin to ever accept blame.

“I will absolutely bring that up. I don’t think you’ll have any ‘Gee, I did it. I did it. You got me,’” Trump said Friday, referring to Putin.

Leading Democratic senators asked Trump in a letter Saturday to scrap the summit “if you are not prepared to make Russia’s attack on our election the top issue you will discuss.” Meanwhile, Sen. John McCain, a leading Republican senator and Trump critic, has said Trump must hold Putin accountable or else he should not proceed with the meeting.

Trump’s chief diplomat, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, said Trump and Putin should meet as planned.

“I am confident that President Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin will put America in a better place. It’s very important that they meet,” Pompeo told journalists traveling with him.

https:// apnews.com/c3506df44ced476283eec88efceded91/Trump-tweets,-hits-links-during-stay-at-Scottish-golf-resort

>>2153852

No surprise's with security like that around Potus. Best in the world correct?

Only people who get by security are those that have been cleared in advance…correct?

This was allowed to happen?

Why?

Lobbying firm sought envoys help to salvage Russian company

WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. lobbying firm sought to recruit the ambassadors of France, Germany and several other countries to demonstrate international support for severing Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska’s control of Rusal, the aluminum manufacturing giant sanctioned by Washington.

Documents made public by the Justice Department show that Mercury LLC drafted messages for at least six envoys to send to senior U.S. government officials that expressed support for a plan to eliminate Deripaska’s majority stake in the EN+ Group, the holding company that owns nearly 50 percent of Rusal.

The records are the latest installment in a drama full of international intrigue.

Deripaska’s close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin are under a microscope while unintended targets of the U.S. penalties struggle with the punishment’s impact. Leading the way, in an odd twist, is a conservative member of Britain’s House of Lords, Gregory Barker, who hired Mercury to salvage Rusal and EN+ by casting Deripaska as the heavy.

It’s unclear how many of the ambassadors sent the messages. But Jamaica’s envoy did, underscoring concerns about the future of a Rusal-owned factory on the Caribbean island.

When the Treasury imposed sanctions on Deripaska a few months ago, EN+ and Rusal were blacklisted too because of the cascading nature of the penalties. It fell to Barker, who was installed less than a year ago as chairman of EN+’s board, to persuade the Trump administration to lift the sanctions against both companies. To do that, he will have to assure the U.S. that Deripaska is no longer calling the shots at EN+ or Rusal.

Barker, a former British energy minister, signed a contract with Mercury in early May — a month after the Treasury Department announced the sanctions. Mercury is to earn $108,500 every four weeks, according to the contract, to support Barker’s efforts to negotiate Deripaska’s exit from the EN+ board and “the reduction of his ownership interest in the company.”

Anders Aslund, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and an expert on Russia’s economic policy, said there can be only two possible owners of Rusal: the Russian government or Deripaska. That’s because the aluminum company’s main assets are giant smelters in east Siberia, a reality he said Treasury officials failed to grasp.

“It appears to me that both parties play the game now: Deripaska reduces his public exposure and the Treasury (Department) pretends that it is satisfied, gradually easing the sanctions,” Aslund said.

The letters prepared for the envoys said Deripaska, not the companies, is the “true target” of the U.S. sanctions. He’s already resigned from the EN+ board. The Treasury Department has set a late October deadline for his 70 percent stake in EN+ to be cut back to less than 50 percent. The “path for the United States to provide sanctions relief,” the department said, is through Deripaska’s divestment and relinquishment of control.

The draft messages, along with background material prepared by Mercury, warned that each country would be damaged economically if the sanctions aren’t eased. France and Germany rely on Rusal’s aluminum in their automotive, telecommunications and aerospace industries. And Rusal is a full or part owner of factories that employ hundreds of people in Ireland, Sweden, Australia and Jamaica.

The ambassadors of France and Sweden did not send the messages, according to representatives from each embassy. The embassies of Germany, Ireland and Australia wouldn’t say.

https:// apnews.com/e6b4f3bd91da4b5ba8d17645271c5364/Lobbying-firm-sought-envoys-help-to-salvage-Russian-company

>>2153923

Late night poker game. Prolly didn't finish until 5am this morning

>>2153950

If security is tight … this guy should never have gotten off the ground.

>>2154018

Your news wire takes liberties with their headlines … much like MSM. You can't source them as a stand alone.

However, you can outside source the subject matter and get further clarification to add to research for more insights. Detail left out in the original story, that actually are a better story/research in and of themselves.

>>2154106

Before I would quote any MSM or pub's like YNW, NYT, WaPo … getting my drift, I would look at a few other sources to see if this is bias propaganda reporting, or an actual happening or accurate appraisal given.

I'm not saying not to read them. Read everything … I just watch my back when it come's to repeating a headline like fact until I've got a couple other sources to back me up.

Does anyone repeat anything CNN or MSNBC says, without checking it against their bias propaganda agenda first?

>>2154201

Never watch him … Never watch Rachael Maddow for the same reason. Two sides of the same coin. They feed into hysteric's not facts.

>>2154225

agreed