OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERAL
U.S. Agency for International Development
Insufficient Oversight of Public International Organizations Puts U.S.Foreign Assistance Programs at Risk
https://oig.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/2018-09/8-000-18-003-P.pdf
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USAID Report Shows Hundreds of Millions of US ‘Humanitarian Aid’ Actually Funded Terrorist Groups
A damning report from the USAID shows that over $700 million in supposed humanitarian aid money may have actually ended up in the hands of terrorist groups.
https://thefreethoughtproject.com/terrorist-groups-usaid-report/
US arms ended up with Al-Nusra jihadists in Syria, says weapons dealmaker
“The missiles were given to us directly,” he said, adding: “The Americans are on our side.” The commander went on to detail how his fighters had received training from US instructors, and financial support from Saudi Arabia and Israel for capturing specific objectives in Syria.
“We got 500 million Syrian pounds (around $2.3 million) from Saudi Arabia. To capture the Infantry School in Al Muslimiya years ago we received 1.5 million Kuwaiti dinars (around $500,000) and Saudi Arabia's $5 million,” he said.
President Trump ended the US arms supply program to Syrian rebels in 2017
https://www.rt.com/usa/426942-us-weapons-nusra-terrorists/
Diplomat says US supplying arms to terrorists in Syria
"Hundreds of tonnes of weapons were transported through the Jordanian ports to end up in terrorists’ hands in southern Syria," he said at the conference titled Countering Illegal Weapons Supplies as Part of the Fight Against International Terrorism. "Close connection has been observed between terrorists’ activity and illegal arms supplies."
"For supplies they use third countries in Eastern Europe, for example, Ukraine and the Balkan states," the diplomat noted.
http://tass.com/world/1019886
‘Americans are on our side’: Al-Nusra commander says US arming jihadists via 3rd countries
“Yes, the US supports the opposition [in Syria], but not directly. They support the countries that support us. But we are not yet satisfied with this support,” Jabhat al-Nusra unit commander Abu Al Ezz said in an interview with Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper from the devastated Syrian city of Aleppo. “The fight is difficult. The regime is strong and gets support from Russia,” he explained.
Al Ezz said that Jabhat Al-Nusra “won battles thanks to TOW rockets. Due to these rockets, we reached a balance with the regime. Our tanks came from Libya via Turkey, joined by the [BM-21] multiple rocket launchers,” he said.
The government forces have an advantage because of aircraft and missile launchers, but “we have the American-made TOW missiles, and the situation in some areas is under control,” Al Ezz added. When asked if the TOW missiles were initially intended for Jabhat Al-Nusra or if the group obtained them from the moderate Free Syrian Army, the jihadist clarified: “No, the missiles were given to us directly.” He also said that when Jabhat Al-Nusra was “besieged, we had officers from Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Israel and America here… Experts in the use of satellites, rockets, reconnaissance and thermal security cameras.”
The journalist asked specifically if the US instructors were really present among the jihadists’ ranks and Al Ezz replied: “The Americans are on our side.” He also said that Jabhat Al-Nusra has been paid for achieving specific military goals during the Syrian conflict. “We got 500 million Syrian pounds (around $2.3 million) from Saudi Arabia. To capture the Infantry School in Al Muslimiya years ago we received 1.5 million Kuwaiti dinars (around $500,000) and Saudi Arabia's $5 million,” Al Ezz said. The money came from the “governments” of those states, not private individuals, he said. “Israel is now giving us support because Israel is at war with Syria and with Hezbollah,” Al Ezz said. The West also “paved the way” for jihadists coming to Syria, saying that “we have many fighters from Germany, France, Britain, America, from all the Western countries,” the commander said.
https://www.rt.com/news/360690-us-arms-nusra-syria/
Mattis reacts to claims that sending troops to border is a ‘political stunt’: ‘We don’t do stunts’
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis insisted that the Department of Defense doesn’t engage in doing “stunts.”
Mattis’ remarks came after a reporter questioned whether the deployment of thousands of active-duty troops being deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border was a “political stunt” ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections, Fox News reported.
What are the details?
Mattis explained that there’s no ulterior motives occurring within the department.
He added that the active-duty deployment was an effort to provide “practical support” to the Department of Homeland Security, as requested by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
“The support that we provide to the Secretary for Homeland Security is practical [and] support-based on the request from the commissioner of custom to border police,” Mattis said. “We don’t do stunts in this department, thank you.”
He added, “We’re there in support of the Secretary of Homeland Security, who needs additional military assistance. We do this following storms, we do this in support of the Department of Homeland Security. This is a different aspect of it, but this is what we’re doing.”
Initially, the president ordered several hundred troops to attend to the approaching migrant caravan, which emerged from Central America and is weaving its way through Mexico toward the U.S. border.
The number quickly increased to 5,000. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump said that as many as 15,000 troops could be sent to the border. The active-duty troops are in addition to the 2,000 National Guardsmen that have been in place for the previous six months.
What else did President Trump say?
Trump told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Monday night that the caravan is simply “not coming in” and that his administration would be willing to build tent cities in order to house asylum-seekers.
“We’re going to have tents, they’re going to be very nice, and [the migrants are] going to wait, and if they don’t get asylum, they get out,” Trump explained.
In remarks Wednesday night, Trump said, “I’m not fearmongering at all. Immigration is a very important subject. The Democrats have let immigration in our country get out of control with their horrible … not allowing us to have any votes get past.
“As far as the caravan,” the president continued, “which is very dangerous, you see what’s been happening as far as the caravan is concerned. Our military is out, we have about 5,000, [8,000], we’ll go up to anywhere between [10,000] and 15,000 military personnel on top of Border Patrol, ICE, and everybody else at the border.
“Nobody’s coming in,” he added. “We’re not allowing people to come in.”
https://www.theblaze.com/news/2018/11/01/mattis-reacts-to-claims-that-sending-troops-to-border-is-a-political-stunt-we-dont-do-stunts
PUT DOWN YOUR PHONE: Comprehensive Study Finds High Cell Phone Use Causes Heart Tumors In Rats
The results of a massive study involving the effect of high levels of radio frequency radiation used in mobile phones on rats may be a warning sign for humans: the male rats developed cancerous heart, brain and adrenal gland cancerous tumors.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had asked for the study to be conducted on radio frequency radiation (RFR) emissions of wireless communication devices for several reasons: the potential for health effects of long-term exposure had not been comprehensively tested; epidemiology and toxicology studies had yielded mixed results, and the studies that were conducted on laboratory animals were limited in their scope.
For the study that was just released, the National Toxicology Program (NTP) collaborated with technical experts from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (Boulder, CO) and the Foundation for Research on Information Technologies in Society (Zurich, Switzerland).
The male rats in the study were exposed to radio frequency radiation like that used in 2G and 3G cell service.
The study noted:
We studied the effects of nearly lifetime exposures to two different types, or modulations, of RFR (GSM and CDMA) used in cellular telephone networks in the United States in male and female rats and mice to identify potential toxicity or cancer-related hazards.
The study pointed out that its focus on 2G and 3G was still relevant as the more modern 4G technology has supplanted them, explaining, “While newer technologies have continued to evolve, it is important to note that these technologies have not completely replaced the older technologies. In fact, today’s phones are very complex in that they contain several antennas, for wi-fi, GPS, 2G/3G bands, etc. Thus, the results of these studies remain relevant to current exposures, although the power levels of the exposures were much higher than typical patterns of human use.”
The study offered some hard facts about the heart tumors that were found:
In the heart of male rats, exposure to RFR for 2 years resulted in a statistically significant positive trend in the incidences of cardiac schwannoma for both GSM and CDMA modulations. The incidence at 6 W/kg for CDMA was statistically significantly increased compared to sham controls. Additionally, cardiac Schwann cell hyperplasia occurred in groups of male rats exposed to both GSM- and CDMA-modulated cell phone RFR. These hyperplastic lesions are relevant to the evaluation of neoplasms because Schwann cell hyperplasia in the heart may progress to cardiac schwannoma (MacKenzie and Alison, 1990; Berridge et al., 2016).
Then, the central issue at hand: “In both studies (GSM and CDMA), exposure to RFR in male rats resulted in higher numbers of animals with tumors of the heart and brain. In the GSM study, increased numbers of animals with tumors of the adrenal gland were also observed in exposed males.”
The study concluded, “In males for both GSM- and CDMA-modulated RFR, we conclude that exposures increased the number of animals with tumors in the heart. Tumors of the brain were also considered to be related to exposure; and increased numbers of male rats with tumors of the adrenal gland were also related to exposure.”
https://www.dailywire.com/news/37875/put-down-your-phone-comprehensive-study-finds-high-hank-berrien
Pope Francis: ‘Nations Are Built by Migrants’
Nations do not build themselves, they “are built by migrants, just as migrants built Europe,” Pope Francis told a group of missionaries this week.
“Europe was not just born like that,” the pope told a delegation of Scalabrini missionaries in off-the-cuff remarks in the Vatican Monday. “Europe was made by many waves of migrants over the centuries.”
Using the example of the “caravan traveling from Honduras to the United States,” Francis said that migrants prefer to stick together, to move as a group rather than to go it alone like “free agents.” In this way, migrants form their own “communities.”
“I am the son of migrants,” the pope said, “and I remember in the post-war period — I was a boy of 10 or 12 years — when, where my father worked, Poles began to arrive to work, all migrants, and I remember how well they were received.”
“Argentina has this experience of welcoming, because there was work and it was also needed,” he said. “And Argentina — from my experience — is a cocktail of migratory waves.”
You have to teach others how to welcome the stranger, Francis said, “and give all the possibilities to the nations that have everything or enough” to welcome foreigners.
“I am very struck by God’s Word: already in the Old Testament it underscored this, welcoming the stranger, ‘remember that you too were once a stranger,’” he said.
“It is true that today there is a wave of closure towards the foreigner, and there are also many situations of trafficking of foreigners; foreigners are exploited,” he said.
The pope compared Europe’s efforts to seal its borders with its demographic crisis caused by low birth rates. In both cases the fear of the stranger — the foreigner or the child — keeps people’s hearts closed, he suggested.
Well-being is a “bad word,” Francis said. “Well-being is suicide” because it leads to two things: closing ports and closing to new life in the family.
Nations close their ports “so they won’t be disturbed,” he said, only allowing in “those people who contribute to my well-being.”
The search for well-being also leads to “not being fruitful,” he said. “Today we have this drama: a demographic winter and the closing of ports.”
“Another phenomenon of migrants — let’s consider the caravan traveling from Honduras to the United States — is to stick together,” Francis said. “The migrant usually tries to go in groups. Sometimes he has to go alone, but it is normal to go as a group, because we feel stronger in migration.”
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/11/01/pope-francis-nations-are-built-by-migrants/
John Bolton Debuts Sanctions Against ‘Three Stooges of Socialism’: Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua
U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton announced on Thursday a new round of sanctions against Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. During his speech at Freedom Tower in Miami, Florida, Bolton declared that the “Troika of Tyranny” would fall with support from the Trump administration.
Bolton specifically announced new sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry and executive measures to prevent Americans from doing business with the Cuban military regime, which controls most of the Cuban economy, including its tourism sector.
“I am here to deliver a clear message from the president … to those three regimes,” Bolton said. “We will not reward torturers, murderers, and abusers.”
“This Troika of Tyranny, this triangle of terror stretching from Havana to Caracas to Managua, is the cause of immense human suffering, the impetus of enormous regional instability, and the genesis of a sordid cradle of communism in the Western Hemisphere,” he declared, calling the extreme poverty and violence against pro-democracy voices in all three countries “the true results of socialism and communism.”
Echoing President Donald Trump, Bolton asserted that the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela – currently lacking nearly all necessary medical supplies for a functional healthcare system and home to a growing hunger problem – is happening because “socialism was implemented successfully.”
“Under this administration, we will no longer appease dictators and despots near our shores in this Hemisphere. We will not reward firing squads, torturers, and murderers. We will champion the independence and liberty of our neighbors,” he continued.
Bolton went on to give the countries another nickname: “the Three Stooges of Socialism.”
“They are pathetic clowns that resemble Larry, Curly, and Moe, three absurd comedians,” he told the Miami audience to cheers.
Bolton also promised “concrete measures” against the regimes, starting with a ban on U.S. transactions with Cuban military corporations and sanctions on Venezuela’s gold industry. Bolton added the administration promised further sanctions down the line and would work to freeze access of the elites of the three countries to stolen assets hidden in the United States.
Bolton also took a moment to thank conservative governments in South America for their support, applauding Colombian President Iván Duque and Brazilian President-elect Jair Bolsonaro personally as “positive signs for the future of the region.”
The administration, he promised, would fight terror “in Pittsburgh or Caracas” and, unlike President Barack Obama, he said, “no one in this administration will take a photo in front of Che Guevara.”
“We will not glamorize Marxist guerrilla fighters,” he added, promising “no selfies” with communist oppressors.
President Trump has vocally opposed the communist regime in Cuba long before being a candidate for office. In a 1999 Miami Herald article, for example, he confessed that he had received offers to build a Trump hotel in Havana. “I had a choice to make: huge profits or human rights. For me, it was a no-brainer,” he wrote. He made reversing President Barack Obama’s appeasement policy towards the Castro regime a pillar of his 2016 campaign, earning him the first-ever presidential endorsement from the Bay of Pigs Veterans Association in October 2016.
https://www.breitbart.com/latin-america/2018/11/01/john-bolton-debuts-sanctions-against-three-stooges-of-socialism-cuba-venezuela-nicaragua/
BORDER
Group of 74 Central American Migrants Apprehended at Texas Border
Border Patrol agents continue to apprehend large groups of Central American migrants after they cross the unsecured border between Mexico and South Texas. In a single incident on Wednesday, Rio Grande Valley Sector agents apprehended a group of more than 70.
Agents assigned to the Weslaco Station encountered a group of migrants who illegally crossed the border early Wednesday morning near Hidalgo, Texas. Rio Grande Valley Sector officials said the group consisted mainly of family units and unaccompanied minors.
The agents took the 74 migrants into custody and transported them to the station where they identified them as coming to the U.S. from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
The apprehension of these large groups of migrants comes as a third caravan is bound for the U.S. from Central America, Breitbart News reported on Wednesday.
https://www.breitbart.com/border/2018/11/01/group-of-74-central-american-migrants-apprehended-at-texas-border/
50 Migrants Apprehended Marching Around Texas Border Checkpoint
Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended nearly 50 illegal immigrants on a ranch in South Texas. The group was apparently dropped off by human smugglers in an attempt to march them around an immigration checkpoint near Freer, Texas.
The agents received a tip about possible illegal activity in an area known for human smuggling. When the agents arrived, they discovered an abandoned vehicle. The agents began a search of the area and called for assistance from a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Air and Marine Operations (AMO) helicopter, according to Laredo Sector Border Patrol officials.
As the search expanded, agents found three more abandoned vehicles, officials stated. The search continued until agents apprehended 46 illegal immigrants hiding in a brushy area.
Border Patrol agents arrested all 46 for immigration violations and seized four vehicles. Officials said the migrants came to the U.S. from “various countries.”
https://www.breitbart.com/border/2018/11/01/50-migrants-apprehended-marching-around-texas-border-checkpoint/
Four Sexual Predators Apprehended with Migrant Groups in South Texas
Border Patrol agents assigned to the Rio Grande Valley Sector apprehended violent criminals and gang members traveling with Central American migrants. Some of those include members of the most violent gangs in the U.S. and sexual predators against children.
McAllen Station agents patrolling near Sullivan City, Texas, arrested a group of nine migrants who crossed the border on October 29. While processing the group, a background investigation revealed that a Lebanon, Kentucky, court convicted one of the men on a charge of sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12. The court sentenced the Guatemalan national to five years in prison, according to Rio Grande Valley Sector officials.
https://www.breitbart.com/border/2018/11/01/four-sexual-predators-apprehended-with-migrant-groups-in-south-texas/
Slavery message from the kiddy fiddler
Pittsburgh synagogue suspect pleads not guilty
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The anti-Semitic truck driver accused of gunning down 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue pleaded not guilty on Thursday to federal charges that could put him on death row.
Robert Bowers, 46, was arraigned one day after a grand jury issued a 44-count indictment that charges him with murder, hate crimes, obstructing the practice of religion and other crimes. It was his second brief appearance in a federal courtroom since the weekend massacre at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood.
"Yes!" Bowers said in a loud voice when asked if he understood the charges.
Authorities say Bowers raged against Jews during and after the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in American history.
Bowers, who was shot and wounded during a gun battle that injured four police officers, walked into court under his own power, his left arm heavily bandaged. He was in a wheelchair at his first court appearance on Monday.
Bowers, who is stocky and square-faced with salt-and-pepper, closely cropped hair, frowned as the charges were read but did not appear to have a reaction as a federal prosecutor announced he could face a death sentence. He told a prosecutor he had read the indictment.
One of his federal public defenders, Michael Novara, said Bowers pleaded not guilty, "as is typical at this stage of the proceeding."
Bowers had been set for a preliminary hearing on the evidence, but federal prosecutors instead took the case to a grand jury.
The panel issued the indictment as funerals continued for the victims.
Jared Younger of Los Angeles told mourners that he waited for hours Saturday for his father to pick up his phone or let them know he was all right. The dread built all day until his sister learned their father, Irving Younger, had indeed been shot and killed.
"That waiting stage was just unbearable," Jared Younger said at his father's funeral Wednesday. "Saturday was the most lonely day of my life."
http://www.webnewsys.com/2018/11/pittsburgh-synagogue-suspect-pleads-not.html
FUCKERY AFOOT
TV report: Israel silent as Iran hit by computer virus more violent than Stuxnet
Tehran strategic networks attacked, Hadashot TV says, hours after Israel revealed it tipped off Denmark about Iran murder plot, and days after Rouhani’s phone was found bugged
Iranian infrastructure and strategic networks have come under attack in the last few days by a computer virus similar to Stuxnet but “more violent, more advanced and more sophisticated,” and Israeli officials are refusing to discuss what role, if any, they may have had in the operation, an Israeli TV report said Wednesday.
The report came hours after Israel said its Mossad intelligence agency had thwarted an Iranian murder plot in Denmark, and two days after Iran acknowledged that President Hassan Rouhani’s mobile phone had been bugged. It also follows a string of Israeli intelligence coups against Iran, including the extraction from Tehran in January by the Mossad of the contents of a vast archive documenting Iran’s nuclear weapons program, and the detailing by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN in September of other alleged Iranian nuclear and missile assets inside Iran, in Syria and in Lebanon.
“Remember Stuxnet, the virus that penetrated the computers of the Iranian nuclear industry?” the report on Israel’s Hadashot news asked. Iran “has admitted in the past few days that it is again facing a similar attack, from a more violent, more advanced and more sophisticated virus than before, that has hit infrastructure and strategic networks.”
https://www.timesofisrael.com/tv-report-israel-silent-as-iran-hit-by-computer-virus-more-violent-than-stuxnet/
Mossad false flags only encourage Iran to boost ties with world: Zarif
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the Israeli spy agency’s “false flags” will fail to hurt Tehran’s ties with the world, apparently referring to Mossad’s role in a diplomatic row between Iran and Denmark.
In a tweet from Pakistan on Wednesday, Zarif said, “Mossad’s perverse & stubborn planting of false flags (more on this later) only strengthens our resolve to engage constructively with the world.”
The top Iranian diplomat – who was in Islamabad following his trilateral talks in Istanbul with his Azeri and Turkish opposite numbers – further praised Iran’s “solid relations” with its neighbors.
“Solid relations w/neighbors our priority,” Zarif said in the tweet, which also carried photos of his meetings in Turkey and Pakistan.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/11/01/578693/Iran-Mossad-Denmark
Belgium accused of handing Libya's frozen cash to militants as 'BILLIONS goes missing'
BELGIUM has been accused of financing Libyan militants involved in weapons and human trafficking.
Prosecutors are investigating whether Belgian banks paid out interest and dividends on accounts frozen under United Nations sanctions during the collapse of Muammar Gaddafi’s Libyan dictatorship, according to public broadcaster RTBF.
During the Libyan revolution in 2011, the UN Security Council froze Libya’s sovereign assets abroad., which included accounts at four Belgian banks.
BNP Paribas Fortis held €43 million, while ING, KBC and Euroclear Bank held €376 million, €869 million and €12.8 billion respectively in Libyan assets.
According to RTBF, interest and dividends of between three and five billion euros had left the accounts since 2012 despite the UN freezing the assets.
While it is not known how the profits were used, an expert believes there is overwhelming evidence to suggest the funds were used in arms and human trafficking crimes.
Robert Wtterwulghe, professor at UC Louvain, said: “In this report, we realise that there is a problem of arms trafficking to feed factions.
“There is a whole market that aims to bring migrants and to engage Nigerian prostitution networks.
“It is a mafia enterprise but relies on all the militias in question – they receive external funds."
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1039399/Belgium-latest-news-United-Nations-Libya-assets-sanctions-arms-human-trafficking
Judicial Watch Lawsuit: FBI Likely Deleted Comey’s and McCabe’s Text Messages in Massive Cover-Up
A new lawsuit filed by conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch exposes a massive FBI cover-up of its text messages, “which are government records and are, by the thousands, likely to have been deleted and lost by FBI employees,” says Tom Fitton.
Judicial Watch announced Thursday it filed lawsuits regarding the maintenance of text messages as federal records and for records of the audit of communications of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
Via Judicial Watch:
After the FBI claimed that text messages are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Judicial Watch filed suit to ensure that text messages are being preserved. The new Administrative Procedure Act lawsuit against the FBI challenges the FBI failure to preserve FBI text messages as required by the Federal Records Act. (Judicial Watch v. FBI (No.1:18-cv-02316)).
In its lawsuit Judicial Watch points to a related case in which Michael G. Seidel, the assistant section chief of the Record/Information Dissemination Section in the FBI’s Information Management Division, stated: “text messages on [FBI]-issued devices are not automatically integrated into an FBI records system.” (Danik v. U.S. Department of Justice, (No. 1:17-cv-01792)).
Judicial Watch argued that the FBI “does not have a recordkeeping program in place that provides effective controls over the maintenance of electronic messages, including text messages.” Moreover, “The FBI relies upon its personnel to incorporate their text messages into a recordkeeping system. If FBI personnel do not actively incorporate their text messages into a recordkeeping system, the text messages are not preserved.”
Judicial Watch asked the court to declare the FBI’s failure to have a recordkeeping program for electronic messages to be “not in accordance with law” and that the court order the FBI “to establish and maintain a recordkeeping program that provides effective controls over the maintenance of electronic messages.”
If text messages are not preserved, then they may be deleted and never produced to Congress, criminal investigators, and to the American people under FOIA.
Judicial Watch also filed suit against the Justice Department after the DOJ failed to respond to an August 27, 2018, FOIA request seeking the FBI’s audit records of McCabe’s communications (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:18-cv-02283)).
Following an Inspector General Report, a grand jury reportedly was impaneled recently to investigate McCabe’s possible role in leaks to the media “to advance his personal interests.”
The FBI has told Judicial Watch that it is under no legal obligation to produce any of Andrew McCabe’s text messages under FOIA, which has attracted criticismfrom President Trump.
President Trump previously asked why the FBI wasn’t giving Judicial Watch McCabe’s text messages. “DO NOT DESTROY” Trump said in the tweet, then asked, “What are they hiding?”
TRUMP: Why isn’t the FBI giving Andrew McCabe text messages to Judicial Watch or appropriate governmental authorities. FBI said they won’t give up even one (I may have to get involved, DO NOT DESTROY). What are they hiding? McCabe wife took big campaign dollars from Hillary people…..
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/11/judicial-watch-lawsuit-fbi-likely-deleted-comeys-and-mccabes-text-messages-in-massive-cover-up/
Invasive 'Vote With Me' App Could Be an Effective GOTV Weapon for Democrats
An invasive new mobile app developed by former Obama appointees and pushed by Democrats to "nudge" fellow Democrats to the polls is creeping folks the heck out. But it could be the secret GOTV weapon that helps Democrats retake the House.
The app, Vote With Me, accesses every contact in the user's phone and shows their entire voting history, how they’re registered, and whether they’re eligible to vote in a swing district. It does this by syncing users’ phone contact lists with information from public voter files.
The app was tested last spring with stunning results.
Via Washingtonian:
“The whole purpose of the app is really to get your friends out to vote,” says Sarah Sullivan, a former senior writer for President Obama who is now deputy executive director of The New Data Project, a nonprofit founded last year that developed the app. “It’s about making sure that you’re prepared, and it’s about building trust.”
The nonprofit’s executive director is Mikey Dickerson, the former Google engineer who was the first head of the US Digital Service, or Obama’s “trauma team” that saved HealthCare.gov after Obamacare launched in 2013. When their terms as White House staffers ended on Inauguration Day in 2017, Dickerson, along with Sullivan and other members of the trauma team, decided to create the nonprofit.
This past spring, the team conducted a pre-launch randomized trial during Conor Lamb’s successful run for Congress and showed that texts sent through VoteWithMe were as much as 20 times more effective than stranger-to-stranger, “get out the vote” methods. The success of this trial encouraged the team to focus primarily on developing and releasing VoteWithMe in time for November’s critical election.
https://pjmedia.com/election/invasive-vote-with-me-app-could-be-an-effective-gotv-weapon-for-democrats/
Turkish Court Rules US Pastor Had Links With Gulen Terrorist Movement - Reports
A Turkish court ruled that US pastor Andrew Brunson’s statements of not having links to Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen's movement, referred to by Ankara as the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), are groundless, the Anadolu news agency reported Thursday citing the ruling.
"The defendant claimed that he didn't contact with representatives of Gulen's movement and other criminal organizations as it contradicts his religious views… But in reality, as confirmed by witnesses, Brunson was in contact not only with FETO’s ‘Imam’ in the Aegean region Bekir Baz, but also with his assistant Murat Safa, who had a direct access to the leader of the terrorist movement," the ruling reads as quoted by the local media.
According to the court, Brunson also provided support to FETO, while Gulen’s supporters, including Baz, helped the pastor solve his problems.
The court said that Brunson, heading only a small religious community, visited some areas of Turkey with a high terrorist threat, and established direct contacts with local leaders, which indicated that the pastor had influential accomplices. The ruling goes on to say that Brunson could get support like this only from FETO representatives.
The relations between Ankara and Washington have soured in the recent years over the case of Brunson, among other issues. The United States responded to his detention by the imposition of sanctions against Turkish Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, accusing them of human rights violations.
Brunson was detained three years ago over his alleged ties to Gulen, accused by Turkey of plotting the 2016 failed military coup. The pastor was released from prison in July 2018, only to be moved to house arrest. He was allowed to walk free in October after a court in Izmir ruled he did not have to serve any more jail time. He soon returned to the United States.
Another wave of tensions between the two countries occurred following the decision of US President Donald Trump to authorize the doubling of previously imposed import tariffs on Turkish aluminum and steel to 20 percent and 50 percent, respectively. The US move resulted in the Turkish lira hitting a historic low. Turkey in response to the US decision increased tariffs on 22 types of US goods worth $533 million. In particular, the country introduced higher levies on US cars, alcohol, fruit, cosmetics and tobacco.
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201811011069428301-turkish-court-brunson/
House GOP and White House Commit to 10% Middle-Class Tax Cut If They Keep Republican Majority
If the Republicans keep their majority in Congress, the middle-class may see nearly a 10% reduction in their taxes. The Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Kevin Brady, issued a statement addressing the tax cuts which said, “we will continue to work with the White House and Treasury over the coming weeks to develop an additional 10 percent tax cut focused specifically on middle-class families and workers. And we intend to take swift action on this legislation at the start of the 116th Congress.”
With the crucial mid-term elections less than a week away, the lure of a 10% tax cut is very enticing and may help the Republicans keep their majority. A preliminary estimate for a 10% reduction in taxes aimed at the middle-class would cost the government $2 trillion over a ten year period. According to President Trump, he would like to make the tax cut deficit neutral which would greatly appeal to his conservative base.
Critics of the tax cut have already suggested “Republicans are scrambling because voters saw through their tax scam and understand that it was written for big corporations and the one percent, not for them,” according to Representative Richard Neal of Massachusetts, top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee.
But if the tax cut could be made “net neutral,” it sounds like it could be a major win for Republicans and the American taxpayer despite the overtones of playing politics before an election. Orrin Hatch, chairman of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee, seemed excited of the prospect of a middle-class tax cut by saying he “welcomes efforts to build on tax reform’s success by continuing to deliver benefits to middle-class Americans” and he would work across the aisle to achieve this goal.
The Congress failed to make the tax cut’s from last year permanent and President Trump, checking off promises made and promises kept, is committed to making a middle-class tax cut permanent.
https://saraacarter.com/house-gop-and-white-house-commit-to-10-middle-class-tax-cut-if-they-keep-republican-majority/
Just-In-Time Stimulus: Fed Proposes Looser Rules For Large U.S. Banks
The Fed's proposal marks one of the most significant rollbacks of bank regulations since Trump took office…
The Wall Street Journal reports Fed Proposes Looser Rules for Large U.S. Banks
The Federal Reserve announced one of the most significant rollbacks of bank rules since President Trump took office with a proposal for looser capital and liquidity requirements for large U.S. lenders.
The changes would affect large U.S. lenders including U.S. Bancorp , Capital One Financial Corp. , and more than a dozen others. The largest U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., wouldn’t see any significant rule changes, and some in the industry thought the proposal didn’t go far enough.
The draft proposal, approved by a 3-1 vote at a Wednesday meeting of the Fed’s governing board, would divide big banks into four categories based on their size and other risk factors. Regional lenders would be either entirely released from certain capital and liquidity requirements, or see those requirements reduced. They could also, in some cases, be subject to less frequent stress tests.
The proposals received a mixed reaction from banks. While some trade groups praised it, Greg Baer—president of the Bank Policy Institute, which represents large banks—said the proposal “does not do enough to tailor regulations.” He said, for instance, the plan doesn’t include changes to the Fed’s primary stress tests for big banks or to rules affecting foreign-owned banks with U.S. footprints. Fed officials said they were planning future proposal in those areas.
The plan divided the Fed, with Trump-appointed regulators and the Fed’s lone Obama-appointed official taking opposite sides. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the proposal would cut the regulatory burden “while maintaining the most stringent requirements for firms that pose the greatest risks.”
Fed governor Lael Brainard dissented. The Obama appointee said the policy changes “weaken the buffers that are core to the resilience of our system” and raise “the risk that American taxpayers again will be on the hook.”
Less Regulation Needed
My "Just in Time Stimulus" headline was meant as sarcasm, in case anyone missed it.
Yet, I am all in favor of less regulation. This is what we need.
End the Fed
End fractional reserve lending
End the bailouts
End deposit insurance
Let the free market select what is money
Failure of Regulation
All five points above are failures of regulation, not failures to regulate.
If we are to enact my plan, by all means let banks lend however the hell they want. The free market will take care of what's needed.
If banks make poor lending choices, they will fail. And that's a good thing.
As it sits, looser lending standards coupled with the current credit bubble, housing bubble, equity bubbles, and a junk bond bubble is not the best thing to do right now.
Lowering capital standards is downright idiotic in light of the need for point number two above.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-11-01/just-time-stimulus-fed-proposes-looser-rules-large-us-banks
makes sense, pretty transparent in any event
>Nauert is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan think tank that has over 4,900 members.
CFR non-partisan what a joke!