Congo commission says election delay due to fire, ethnic violence - candidate
https://uk.reuters.com/article/congo-election-commission-fire/congo-commission-says-election-delay-due-to-fire-ethnic-violence-candidate-idUKL8N1YP46S?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Social
Trump stops following Ann Coulter on Twitter after 'joke presidency' comments
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/422220-trump-stops-following-ann-coulter-on-twitter-after-joke-presidency-comments
Promises made Promises kept
unable to launch
weather
agreed but this is one of the topics he is suppose to stance on other side… on top of kashoggi
JOHN MCCAIN ASSOCIATE GAVE DOSSIER TO BUZZFEED
A longtime associate of late Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain provided a copy of the infamous Steele dossier to BuzzFeed News, according to an explosive court filing released Wednesday.
David Kramer, a former State Department official who was an executive at the McCain Institute, met on Dec. 29, 2016 with BuzzFeed reporter Ken Bensinger, according to a filing submitted Wednesday by U.S. District Court Judge Ursula Ungaro.
BuzzFeed published the dossier, which was authored by former British spy Christopher Steele, on Jan. 10, 2017.
The disclosure was made as part of a final report ahead of Ungaro’s ruling in favor of BuzzFeed in a defamation lawsuit.
The revelation that Kramer was BuzzFeed’s source settles one of the main mysteries of the dossier, which alleges a vast conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russian government to influence the 2016 election. (RELATED: BuzzFeed Wins Dossier Lawsuit)
According to Ungaro, BuzzFeed and Kramer dispute how Bensinger obtained a copy of the dossier.
“The parties dispute whether Kramer gave Bensinger a copy or whether Bensinger took photos of the Dossier when Kramer was not looking,” reads a footnote in Ungaro’s filing.
“Kramer testified that Bensinger took photos of the Dossier when Kramer was out of the room, even though he asked Bensinger not to,” wrote Ungaro, adding that, “in a later declaration, Kramer stated that he had no objection to Bensinger taking a hard copy and had provided hard copies to other journalists.”
The other journalists Kramer met with are not identified.
Kramer obtained copies of the dossier after meeting in late November 2016 with Steele. He and McCain became aware of Steele’s investigation of then-candidate Donald Trump earlier that month at the Halifax International Security Forum.
McCain dispatched Kramer to London to meet with Steele. After that Nov. 28, 2016 encounter, Kramer obtained a copy of the dossier from Glenn Simpson, the founder of Fusion GPS, the firm that hired Steele on behalf of the Clinton campaign and DNC.
Kramer met Nov. 30, 2016, with McCain and McCain’s chief of staff, Christopher Brose, to review Steele’s reports.
“Kramer advised McCain to share the reports with the FBI and the CIA,” according to Ungaro.
Days later, Kramer met at McCain’s behest with Victoria Nuland, who served then as assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasian affairs and the State Department, and Celeste Wallender, the top Russian affairs official at the National Security Council.
Nuland and Wallender were aware of the dossier and Steele, according to Ungaro.
“Kramer reviewed with Bensinger what he knew about the Dossier and explained that he took the allegations seriously,” according to the court filing.
https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/19/buzzfeed-mccain-associate-dossier/?utm_campaign=atdailycaller&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter
Hoe on deck soon
Exclusive: Whitaker told he does not need to recuse himself from overseeing Mueller investigation
(CNN)Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker has consulted with ethics officials at the Justice Department and they have advised him he does not need to recuse himself from overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, a source familiar with the process told CNN Thursday.
The source added Whitaker has been in ongoing discussions with ethics officials since taking the job in early November following the ouster of Jeff Sessions, who had stepped aside from overseeing the investigation due to his contacts with Russian officials during the 2016 election. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein oversaw the investigation following Sessions' recusal and his office is still managing the investigation on a day-to-day basis, as CNN has previously reported.
Whitaker is expected to inform senators, many of whom have raised ethics concerns given his past criticism of Mueller's investigation, about this development later Thursday, the source said.
President Donald Trump has nominated William Barr to be the next attorney general on a permanent basis. If confirmed, Barr would oversee the Mueller investigation.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/20/politics/matthew-whitaker-attorney-general-robert-mueller-investigation/index.html
NEJM showing figures and shit
wonder what they are hinting to… all angles
Last night, the House passed the bipartisan #WaterInfrastructureImprovementAct to help communities modernize and improve their wastewater management systems. I've worked for yrs on these policies and am glad the legislation is moving forward. See my floor speech on the bill:
https://twitter.com/boblatta/status/1075766717580800000
DEVELOPING: Judge refuses to dismiss sex assault charges against disgraced Hollywood movie producer Harvey Weinstein
https://twitter.com/TRTWorldNow/status/1075769166387236871
Upside down Christmas tree hoe
https://www.indy100.com/article/ariana-grande-christmas-decorations-melania-trump-upside-down-tree-ceiling-8692391
DEVELOPING: Police fire tear gas at hundreds of protesters in the heart of Sudan’s capital Khartoum as they chant for the fall of the country’s president Omar al Bashir, who’s been in power since 1989
https://twitter.com/TRTWorldNow/status/1075770966955876353
Cryin' Chuck at it
Turkish, Iranian presidents discuss regional stability
Ankara and Tehran can take many joint steps to end clashes and ensure peace in the region, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday.
"There are so many steps that Turkey and Iran can take together to end the clashes in our region and ensure a peaceful environment," Erdogan said at a news conference with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani in the capital Ankara.
Erdogan said Turkey did not allow any entities seeking to harm the security of the country and the region, adding that it would not all allow them in the future.
Ankara and Tehran have a strong will to increase cooperation in this regard, he stressed.
The president also said Turkey does not approve of the US sanctions on Iran since it leads to destabilisation in the region.
"We will continue to be in solidarity with brotherly Iran at a time when pressures on Iran mounts which we find unjust," Erdogan added.
In August, the US re-imposed a first round of sanctions that mainly targeted Iran’s banking sector.
A second phase of sanctions – targeting Iran’s energy sector – came into effect on November 5, although Washington granted a 180-day reprieve to the eight largest buyers of Iranian oil, including Turkey.
…
https://www.trtworld.com/turkey/turkish-iranian-presidents-discuss-regional-stability-22670
De Mistura holds briefing at UNSC in New York
United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan De Mistura is holding a briefing at the UN Security Council in New York City on Thursday, December 20, after meeting with the foreign ministers of Iran, Russia and Turkey.
nice try