Anonymous ID: e74c78 Oct. 9, 2018, 10:06 a.m. No.3409860   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9886 >>9914 >>0009 >>0168

Comey Confidant James Baker Throws Rosenstein Under the Bus – Tells Congress His Plot to Oust Trump Was NOT A JOKE

 

Former FBI lawyer and Comey confidant James Baker told Congressional investigators that Rosenstein’s plot to wear a wire and oust Trump from office was not a joke as the DAG claimed.

 

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein last year spoke with DOJ and FBI officials about wearing a wire and secretly recording President Trump to be able to build a case that Trump is unfit to hold office.

 

DAG Rosenstein began plotting Trump’s removal shortly after FBI Director Comey was fired, The New York Times reported citing memos penned by then-Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe.

 

The House Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena for Andrew McCabe’s memos, however; Congress has not yet received them and the deadline was October 4th.

 

Rosenstein also sought to recruit cabinet members to invoke the 25th amendment to remove President Trump from office, according to the New York Times.

 

DAG Rosenstein immediately came out and said the New York Times report was inaccurate and that he was merely joking about wearing a wire.

 

Not so says former FBI lawyer James Baker who has firsthand knowledge of McCabe’s memos and conversations with Rosenstein.

 

Via John Solomon of The Hill:

 

Baker told Congress last week that his boss — then-Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe — was dead serious about the idea of surreptitiously recording the 45th president and using the evidence to make the case that Trump should be removed from office, according to my sources.

 

Baker told lawmakers he wasn’t in the meeting that McCabe had with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in which the subject came up. But he did have firsthand conversations with McCabe and the FBI lawyer assigned to McCabe, Lisa Page, about the issue.

 

“As far as Baker was concerned, this was a real plan being discussed,” said a source directly familiar with the congressional investigation. “It was no laughing matter for the FBI.”

 

Word of Baker’s testimony surfaces just days before Rosenstein is set to be interviewed in private on Thursday by House Judiciary Committee lawmakers.

 

“You walk away from the Baker interview with little doubt that the FBI leadership in that 2016-17 time-frame saw itself as far more than a neutral investigative agency but actually as a force to stop Trump’s election before it happened and then maybe reversing it after the election was over,” said a source directly familiar with the congressional investigation.

 

James Baker, who resigned on May 4th, is singing like a canary to Congressional investigators.

 

Last week James Baker gave an explosive testimony in a closed-door deposition and revealed he met with Perkins Coie lawyer Michael Sussmann in September of 2016, a few weeks before the FBI obtained a FISA warrant.

 

The swamp is turning on each other! Stay tuned, according to Sean Hannity, this is going to be an explosive week for breaking news ‘involving a top DOJ official.’

 

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/10/comey-confidant-james-baker-throws-rosenstein-under-the-bus-tells-congress-his-plot-to-oust-trump-was-not-a-joke/

Anonymous ID: e74c78 Oct. 9, 2018, 10:07 a.m. No.3409869   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9889 >>0145

Developing: President Trump Says He Will Make “Very Big Announcement” Tonight at Iowa Rally

 

President Donald Trump accepted United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley’s resignation on Tuesday.

 

As United Nations ambassador for the Trump Administration Haley was praised for her work in implementing the Trump agenda.

 

President Trump also dropped this nugget for the media — something is happening at his rally tonight in Iowa.

 

President Trump: I’m going to Iowa tonight. We have a big-big crowd. We’re going to make a major announcement tonight, by the way, in Iowa. We’re going to make a very big announcement. And I have to tell you the farmers are so thrilled with the USMCA.

 

He sure knows how to promote an event!

 

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/10/developing-president-trump-says-he-will-make-very-big-announcement-tonight-at-iowa-rally-video/

Anonymous ID: e74c78 Oct. 9, 2018, 10:13 a.m. No.3409940   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>0378

‘Pakistan tests nuclear-capable missile after India cancels talks & signs S-400 deal with Russia

 

Pakistan has successfully test-launched its nuclear-capable missile system just after its archenemy India refused peace talks with Islamabad and bought billions-worth of weapons from Russia.

 

The missile system, which can fire both nuclear and conventional projectiles to a distance of 1,300km, was tested on Monday by the Army Strategic Forces Command (ASFC). The test of the Ghauri Ballistic Missile was praised by Pakistani President Arif Alvi, and Prime Minister Imran Khan.

 

“The launch consolidates Pakistan’s nuclear capability, which is aimed at peace and stability through a credible deterrence regime,” the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement read.

 

The test comes weeks after India U-turned on its decision to meet with Pakistan to discuss ways of ensuring peace and stability in the region.

 

India had initially accepted Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s invitation, but it then backed out over what its foreign minister branded the “brutal killing” of three policemen at the hands of Pakistani militants earlier this month.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) also cited Pakistan’s reported distribution of postage stamps purportedly glorifying terrorism as a reason for India refusing to hold talks.

 

The nuclear-capable-missile launch also follows India signing off a $5.4-billion contract for the purchase of S-400 missile systems from Russia.

 

https://www.rt.com/news/440763-pakistan-nuclear-missile-test-india/

Anonymous ID: e74c78 Oct. 9, 2018, 10:16 a.m. No.3409972   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>9987 >>9989 >>0005 >>0025 >>0378

Alabama Police Chief Arrested for Allegedly Masturbating In Front of Children at the Beach

 

Not just a regular cop, but the police chief of an Alabama town was filmed on multiple surveillance cameras masturbating in front of children and teen girls.

 

Panama City Beach, FL — The chief of police for the city of Level Plains, Alabama was arrested last week after allegedly masturbating in public in an elevator as young children entered and exited. He was also witnessed masturbating while walking down the beach behind various teen girls and filming them shower.

 

Billy Maurice Driggers, the 44-year-old chief of police, was arrested at the police station last week and charged with four counts of disorderly conduct.

 

As the News Herald reports,

 

According to Panama City Beach Police, security alerted law enforcement to a white male seen by guests masturbating while watching women, as well as sticking his hand down his pants and touching himself on three occasions while women and children entered the elevator. He was wearing just shorts, according to reports.

 

Officers located the man matching that description and identified him as Driggers, who was not a registered guest at the hotel.

 

It was also discovered that Driggers allegedly was seen touching himself while walking down the beach in front of the condo while following teenage girls, along with taking video and photos of girls rinsing off after coming off the beach.

 

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/police-chief-arrested-crimes-beach/

Anonymous ID: e74c78 Oct. 9, 2018, 10:18 a.m. No.3409997   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>0033 >>0051 >>0363 >>0400

Mystery as Christine Ford’s FBI Lawyer Pal Is Linked to Owner of Limo Company That Killed 20 People in NY

 

The Swamp has gotten so out of control it’s hard to make heads or tails of all the corruption.

 

Especially after this revelation.

 

We have to report it but it just simply is too mind-boggling to comprehend.

 

Monica McLean, the best pal of Kavanaugh-accuser Christine Ford, is linked to the case of the limo company owner tied to the recent deaths of 20 people in New York.

 

McLean’s name turned up in a FBI filing where the owner Shahed Hussain was an FBI RAT in a case to help the bureau charge Muslims in “a plot to detonate explosives near a synagogue in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, New York, and to shoot military planes located at the New York Air National Guard Base at Stewart Airport in Newburgh, New York, with Stinger surface-to-air guided missiles,” according to public records.

 

Hussain was also an FBI RAT in New York criminal cases.

 

The limo company owner is reportedly also on the lam for a murder in Pakistan, but why should that stop the FBI from paying him as an informant?

 

From the Daily Mail:

 

The owner of the limousine company behind Saturday’s horror crash which killed 20 people is a former FBI informant who went undercover to record alleged terrorists in mosques after fleeing to the US from Pakistan in the 1990s where he’d been accused of murder.

 

Shahed Hussain, 62, is named as the owner of Prestige Limousines, aka Hasy Limos, aka Saratoga Luxury Limousine, in Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration documents.

 

But 2010 court documents from the terrorism trials of four men who plotted to blow up the synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down planes coming out of Newburgh airbase reveal Hussain’s past ties to the FBI which he convinced to take him on after being caught running a dangerous DMV scan which helped prospective drivers cheat on their tests.

 

Anyway, McLean is listed on one of the DOJ’s case files where terrorists Hussain ratted out were pinched.

 

I guess the knowledge the FBI was harboring and paying an accused murderer who was on the run sort of shatters her credibility as a fact witness against Kavanaugh.

 

Here is the filing from the DOJ as warehoused and compiled by the Investigative Reporting Project.

 

The same players keep resurfacing in bad things as does the FBI. And the Southern District of New York, a breeding ground for domestic problems and skulduggery stemming from its federal law enforcement apparatus’.

 

Coincidence? Does anybody believe in them any more — at this point?

 

https://truepundit.com/mystery-as-christine-fords-fbi-lawyer-pal-is-linked-to-owner-of-limo-company-that-killed-20-people-in-ny/

Anonymous ID: e74c78 Oct. 9, 2018, 10:21 a.m. No.3410028   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>0052

Trump Reveals Plans For Nikki Haley

 

President Donald Trump announced that U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley will be leaving her post at the end of 2018, in an Oval Office announcement on Tuesday.

 

Trump told reporters that Haley had told him approximately 6 months ago that she wanted to leave at the end of two years on the job. Haley told reporters that she is not leaving to run for office against Trump and committed to campaigning for him in 2020.

 

“She has done a fantastic job and we’ve done a fantastic job together. We’ve solved a lot of problems and we’re in the process of solving a lot of problems” Trump said, adding that he is willing to welcome Haley back in any capacity within the Trump administration.

 

Haley’s policy positions were long seen to be at odds with Trump’s positions, though she emerged as a forceful voice for the U.S. at the UN Security Council. The UN Ambassador frequently delivered broadsides against Russia, North Korea, and Iran at the international body and was a vocal advocate of the Trump administration’s agenda.

 

She previously served as the Republican governor of South Carolina.

 

https://dailycaller.com/2018/10/09/trump-reveals-plans-for-nikki-haley/

Anonymous ID: e74c78 Oct. 9, 2018, 10:22 a.m. No.3410041   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>0097

Mitch McConnell Says He’ll Push A Supreme Court Nominee In 2020 If He Has The Opportunity

 

Would Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) be breaking precedent if he allowed a Supreme Court nominee a hearing and a vote in 2020?

 

Democrats say yes, since McConnell denied President Barack Obama’s 2016 nominee, Merrick Garland, a hearing. At the time McConnell said: “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”

 

Now McConnell is singing a different tune, but he says he isn’t ignoring precedent, because in 2020, Republicans will, most likely, have control of the Senate and the White House. Democrats only had the White House in 2016.

 

“The Senate in the hands of one party and the White House in the hands of another in a presidential election year,” McConnell said during a press conference. “That is what we had in 2016.”

 

We were also guaranteed a new president in 2016. In 2020, we may keep President Donald Trump.

 

McConnell had based his Garland decision off a speech from then Sen. Joe Biden in 1992, where he argued that if a Supreme Court seat became vacant, then President George H.W. Bush should not nominate someone until after that year’s election. Bush might have remained president, as he was only in his first term, but Democrats controlled the Senate. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) made a similar statement at the end of President George W. Bush’s term, but just as in 1992, no Supreme Court vacancy occurred.

 

This is all just hypothetical at this point, but McConnell would be in a different position than Biden was in 1992, or Schumer was in 2007, or McConnell himself was in 2016, since Republicans would control the Senate and the White House.

 

https://www.dailywire.com/news/36900/mitch-mcconnell-says-hell-push-supreme-court-ashe-schow

Anonymous ID: e74c78 Oct. 9, 2018, 10:26 a.m. No.3410090   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>0157 >>0177 >>0325 >>0378

Top Eurocrat Juncker Attacks ‘Stupid Populists’ in Attempts to Reach out to Eurosceptics

 

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has attacked “stupid populists” whilst attempting to reach out to Eurosceptics as predictions point to federalists losing out in May’s European Parliament elections.

 

Addressing a session of the European Week of Regions and Cities on Monday, the top Eurocrat said that the European Union must distinguish between “those Eurosceptics who have questions to ask and opinions to make” and the “stupid populists”, reports Euractiv.

 

“In Europe, there is an increasing number of Eurosceptics and they tend to be promoting Eurosceptical opinions. We should talk to them,” the Commissioner said, adding: “We cannot build Europe against the nations and the regions.”

 

The Eurocrat’s cooperative sentiment is an evolution from where he positioned himself in September 2016, where he said that to prevent Europe from “going down the path of nationalisation”, post-Brexit, Europe needed more “union” — while it has been populism, which Juncker continues to condemn, that has largely provided a political framework for Euroscepticism.

 

Just last year, Juncker advocated for the creation of a pan-European economy and finance minister, the bloc taking on more foreign policy decisions on behalf of member-states, and called for a fully-fledged EU army by 2025.

 

Offering a sympathetic ear to Eurosceptics may reflect an awareness by the higher echelons in the EU that the phenomenon of populist and conservative parties experiencing election victories nationally this past year may be played out again in May 2019, with Reuters predicting that Eurosceptic and anti-establishment parties are set to experience a boost at the EP elections.

 

Juncker will retire from the Commissioner role at the end of his term and a new leader of the bloc’s executive arm will be appointed some six months after the parliamentary elections; with governments and possibly the EP turning to the right the role of Commissioner may, even in part, deviate from its globalist position.

 

On Monday, Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini and leader of France’s National Rally Marine Le Pen met in Rome to unveil their “Freedom Front” movement which will unite populist parties ahead of the EP elections.

 

Meanwhile, the pro-EU President of France Emmanuel Macron kicked off his own election campaign, taking his progressive En Marche! party on tour across Europe to fight nationalism and defend the European project.

 

https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/10/09/top-eurocrat-juncker-attacks-stupid-populists-attempts-reach-eurosceptics/

 

DRUNKER PANICS

Anonymous ID: e74c78 Oct. 9, 2018, 10:27 a.m. No.3410109   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>0132 >>0233 >>0378 >>0456

Hillary Clinton Attacks British Tories for Backing Orbán, Demands U.S., Europe Respect Human Rights of Migrants

 

Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has scolded British Conservative Party politicians for backing the anti-mass migration Prime Minister of Hungary and demanded that Europe and U.S. deal with migration crises with “respect to human rights”.

 

“I hope the people of Europe and the European Union will resist the backsliding we’re seeing in the east,” Clinton told the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at Oxford University on Tuesday.

 

“It’s disheartening to watch conservatives in Brussels vote to shield Viktor Orbán from censure, including British Tories.

 

“They have come a long way from the party of [Winston] Churchill and [Margaret] Thatcher.”

 

The former Secretary of State to President Barack Obama made the condemnation in relation to Tory Members of European Parliament voting against imposing sanctions on Hungary at the EU’s parliament last month for alleged breach of “European values” after Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán outlawed the facilitation of illegal migration.

 

The former presidential nominee was at Mansfield College’s Bonavero Institute to commemorate former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s role in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

 

During her speech on the “rise of illiberalism”, Clinton, who is against the UK leaving the EU, also compared what she called Europe’s “slide towards autocracy” to be “as grave a threat to the European project as the financial crisis or Brexit”.

 

“It’s also a threat to Nato,” she claimed.

 

The Democrat also weighed in on Europe’s and the U.S.’s approach to stemming the flow of illegal migrants, saying the “challenge of migration” must be handled “with courage and compassion”.

 

“Here in Europe I add my voice to those warning of the risks of giving up on Schengen and the great benefits freedom of movement have delivered,” Clinton said of the bloc’s internal open borders system, which had been temporarily suspended along some national borders since 2015 in response to stemming the mass flows of people arriving from the global south, with identity checks at borders still in place in response to ongoing terrorism concerns.

 

“I’m not talking about open borders,” claimed Clinton, who said in 2013 that she dreamt of a North and South American “hemispheric common market, with open trade and open borders”, adding that immigration laws should be “enforced with fairness and respect for human rights.”

 

“Of course, security and rule of law must be upheld.”

 

https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/10/09/hillary-clinton-attacks-british-torys-backing-orban-defends-free-movement/

Anonymous ID: e74c78 Oct. 9, 2018, 10:30 a.m. No.3410135   🗄️.is 🔗kun

Border Patrol Sector Chief: Wall Helped Turn ‘No-Man’s Land’ into ‘Shopping Mall’

 

Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Patrol Chief Patrol Agent Manuel Padilla makes the case for securing the southwestern border during an exclusive interview with Breitbart Texas Editor-in-Chief Brandon Darby. Chief Padilla details why the U.S. needs to have functional control of its borders and discusses the effectiveness of walls and other technologies.

 

“From a historical perspective, we started being very very busy since the late 80s, early 90s,” Chief Padilla explained. “It really came to a head in the early 90s when we started our efforts in San Diego.”

 

Chief Padilla, who is now responsible for securing the nation’s busiest sector for illegal immigration, said that in the early 1090s, the San Diego Sector was apprehending well over 560,000 people in a year’s time.

 

“That’s really when we started building up border security,” he said. “We started deploying personnel, technology, and infrastructure. If you look at the progress and the evolution of the strategies throughout the years, we have four corridors — California, Arizona, West Texas-New Mexico, and then South Texas.”

 

The chief explained the deployment of technology, personnel, and infrastructure, has “really transformed those areas of the border where it was extremely busy in the past.”

 

Padilla said that currently in the three sectors of the South Texas border (Del Rio, Laredo, and Rio Grande Valley Sectors) there is only about 60 miles of infrastructure (fencing and walls).

 

Referring to the San Diego Sector, Padilla said, “Nobody can deny that the transformation of a very chaotic border (in the early 90s) into the border that it now creates an environment for prosperity. There were areas back then that were ‘no-man’s lands.'”

 

Padilla described an area referred to as the “soccer field” where when darkness fell, there were “huge numbers of people coming in waves.”

 

“Look at those places now — there’s shopping malls. There’s very good housing that has been built along those areas.” He said there is a very evident before and after change in the area. He went on to describe similar results in the El Paso and Tucson sectors where physical barriers, technology, and additional manpower have made a big difference in the security of these communities.

 

Darby discussed the issue of physical barriers and increased border security. “The wall was built in San Diego and the wall was built in El Paso. Did that wall play a part in transforming those sectors?” Darby asked.

 

“Absolutely,” Chief Padilla responded. “There’s no way that we could have achieved that level of security in those places without the wall.”

 

“What is very, very interesting,” the chief continued, “is that when you have a border that is exploitable, that needs a lot of work, you have a commensurate level of cartel violence on the south side.”

 

https://www.breitbart.com/texas/2018/10/09/border-patrol-sector-chief-wall-helped-turn-no-mans-land-into-shopping-mall/

Anonymous ID: e74c78 Oct. 9, 2018, 10:35 a.m. No.3410210   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>0219 >>0231

Russia planning to turn Libya into ‘new Syria’: UK intelligence

 

The UK intelligence agencies have reportedly warned Prime Minister Theresa May that Russia is sending weapons and troops to Libya in order to turn the North African country into a “new Syria,” an allegation that is likely to further muddy the waters between Moscow and London.

 

The Sun newspaper reported Monday that “dozens” of officers from the Russia’s GRU military intelligence service as well as its Special Forces wing, Spetznaz, had already been deployed to Libya upon Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order.

 

The tabloid newspaper claimed that seizing control of the biggest illegal immigration route to Europe was Moscow’s biggest objective.

 

The report further claimed that the Russian military was already operating two bases in Libya’s coastal towns of Tobruk and Benghazi under the cover of a Russian private military company called the Wagner Group.

 

Russia is also believed to have deployed batteries of its Kalibr anti-ship missiles and S-300 air defense systems on the ground in Libya, the report stated.

 

“What Putin is doing in Libya is straight out of his playbook for Syria,” one government source claimed, referring to Russia’s military campaign in support of the Syrian government against terrorist groups across the country.

 

The official went on to liken Russia’s practices to the 2014 re-integration of the Crimean Peninsula to Russia.

 

“It is a potentially catastrophic move to allow him to undermine Western democracy, but again we are doing nothing about it,” the source added.

 

The report caused uproar among members of the UK parliament, prompting senior MPs to call for government action.

 

“It’s is extremely alarming Russia wants to open up a new front against the West in Libya, but it should also come as no surprise,” Commons Foreign Affairs committee chairman Tom Tugendhat.

 

“We need a coordinated government response because the destabilization of a sub-Saharan country is intimately linked to UK national security,” he added.

 

Russian officials have agreed to meet with Libyan strongman General Khalifa Haftar in the past. However, the Kremlin denies allegations that it has forces on the ground in the country.

 

Haftar, who leads the Libyan National Army and is considered the de facto military ruler of much of Eastern Libya, was one of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s senior commanders but later switched sides.

 

Libya has faced chaos since an uprising and a NATO military intervention resulted in the downfall of Gaddafi in 2011.

 

The oil-rich country has been grappling with insecurity and the emergence of numerous militant groups, including Daesh, since then.

 

Tensions are already running high between Britain and Russia.

 

London has taken an aggressive line with Moscow over the past months, accusing it of increased submarine activity near British waters, poisoning a former Russian double-agent and more importantly, carrying out regular hacking attacks against British infrastructure.

 

Russia has time and again denied the charges, dismissing them as “Russophobic hysteria” being spread by the West.

 

https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/10/09/576508/UK-intel-Russia-GRU-Spetznaz-Libya-Putin-Haftar

Anonymous ID: e74c78 Oct. 9, 2018, 10:41 a.m. No.3410287   🗄️.is 🔗kun

WaPo Publishes CCTV Image Of Saudi Journalist Walking Into Istanbul Consulate

 

The Washington Post had previously sketched out all the ways that the scandal of its own allegedly murdered columnist Jamal Khashoggi could damage US-Saudi relations at a crucial time for crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, but late Monday we caught of a glimpse of just how much damage will be done given the White House and State Department's first official statements: likely none at all.

 

On Monday President Trump for the first time addressed the Khashoggi disappearance and widely reported news about this murder by the Saudis at their consulate in Istanbul: "I am concerned about that. I don't like hearing about it and hopefully that will sort itself out."

 

The president said further of rampant speculation over his disappearance: "Right now nobody knows anything about it. There's some pretty bad stories about it. I do not like it." And Vice President Mike Pence said he was "deeply troubled" over the reports.

 

Meanwhile, according to CBS News, "The Washington Post published a surveillance image Tuesday showing its missing Saudi contributor walking into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul a week ago, just before he disappeared. Turkish officials have said they fear the columnist was killed there, and announced on Tuesday that they would be searching the consulate as part of their ongoing investigation into Khashoggi's disappearance."

 

Adding to Trump's it "will sort itself out" statement, the State Department addressed the Khashoggi issue with only few more words as it essentially called on Saudi Arabia — the presumed murders — to investigate themselves, as WikiLeaks aptly noted. The statements reads: "We call on the government of Saudi Arabia to support a thorough investiagtion of Mr. Khashoggi's disappearance and to be transparent about the results of that investigation."

 

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-09/wapo-publishes-cctv-image-saudi-journalist-walking-istanbul-consulate

Anonymous ID: e74c78 Oct. 9, 2018, 10:42 a.m. No.3410301   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>0378

Report: Google to pay Apple $9 billion to remain default search engine on Safari

 

If it's accurate, Apple is making a boatload of money off of Google.

 

Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs has estimated (via Business Insider, registration req’d) that Google will pay a whopping $9 billion to remain the default search engine for Apple’s Safari browser. The report also estimated that the number could grow by $3 billion to $12 billion over the next year.

 

From $1 billion to $9 billion in four years. In 2014, court documents in Oracle’s copyright suit against Google, asserted that “Apple received $1 billion from its rival in 2014.” Wall Street firms had estimated the number at between $1 to $1.3 billion at the time.

 

But 2017 third party estimates had put the the figure that Google pays Apple at $3 billion. There’s uncertainty and disagreement about whether it’s a straight fee based on traffic or query volume or whether there’s a revenue share on ad revenue generated by Safari as part of the agreement.

 

Safari the second largest browser. On a global basis, Safari has the second largest market share after Google’s Chrome (59.7 percent vs. 14.5 percent). In the US, Safari delivers 31 percent of internet traffic to Chrome’s 49 percent.

 

In June 2013 Apple made Bing the default search engine for Siri but not for the Safari browser on the iPhone. Google replaced Bing as the source of web search results for Siri in 2017.

 

Wall Street analysts have been very pleased with the growth of Apple’s services revenue, which was reported to be $9.55 billion in Q3, up 31 percent since last year. Google’s payments to Apple would fall into this “services” category.

 

Why it matters. Given the fact that Safari is the number two browser (because of the iPhone), Google’s continued standing as the default helps keep the search giant’s mobile search dominance — in both reach and advertising click volume — cemented.

 

https://searchengineland.com/report-google-to-pay-apple-9-billion-to-remain-default-search-engine-on-safari-306082

Anonymous ID: e74c78 Oct. 9, 2018, 10:44 a.m. No.3410316   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>0337

Unsolicited absentee ballots leave Oklahoma voters scratching their heads

 

OKLAHOMA CITY - Sharon Triplet plans to cast her vote November 6 and not a day sooner.

 

“I was kind of concerned this was some kind of scam getting me to vote early,” she said.

 

Tens of thousands of registered voters in our state received unsolicited applications for absentee ballots in the mail.

 

Triplet's was already filled out with her personal information.

 

“[It had] my name and address, my home,” she said.

 

It’s not that big of deal because your name, address, party affiliation and how often you vote is public information.

 

Oklahoma City University political science professor and registered Democrat voter Dr. Richard Johnson also got an unsolicited application.

 

“The first thing I look at is return address, which is Springfield, Missouri, which is a very socially conservative area, so I'm thinking this is something Republican oriented or from a conservative group,” he said.

 

We alerted the Oklahoma State Election Board.

 

“It's certainly something the election board wouldn't do,” said Oklahoma State Election Board secretary Paul Ziriax.

 

It's not against the law either.

 

The absentee ballot applications are the real thing, the same forms you get from the state.

 

“Most of the phone calls we're receiving here are just questioning ‘Who is this group? How did they get my information?’” Ziriax said.

 

We know the mailing is from a group called the Center for Voter Information, but they're not based in Missouri.

 

Rather, CVI is a tax-exempt 501c4 non-profit known as a social welfare group out of Washington DC.

 

CVI’s program director told us they are a "non-partisan organization with a mission to increase civic engagement among people of color, unmarried women and millennials."

 

While they claim to be non-partisan, according to Federal Election Commission filings, they've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars supporting Democrats and opposing Republican U.S. House and Senate candidates.

 

Back in 2010, when the group went by the name Women's Voices Women Vote Action Fund, they paid for an ad in a Colorado U.S. Senate race and spent close to $1 million targeting the Republican nominee.

 

https://kfor.com/2018/10/08/unsolicited-absentee-ballots-leave-oklahoma-voters-scratching-their-heads/