Why Politicians Sweat The Ides Of March

Since Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times by an unruly mob of Senators in 44 AD, the ‘Ides of March,’ or March 15, has been a superstitious day of which politicians should be weary. ‘Beware the Ides of March’ are words made famous by William Shakespeare, in his 1599 play about the Roman Emperor’s death. Shortly before his assassination, a soothsayer came to Caesar, warning of impending doom with the now-infamous phrase.

“Ides” actually refers to a calendar measurement, since Romans didn’t count the days of the month from beginning to end. There were three named days. “Kalends” was used for the first day, “Nones” for the 3rd to the 5th days, and “Ides” represented the 13th to the 15th days, or the middle. Caesar’s death marked the end of the Roman Republic, and throughout history historians have noted eerie similarities of politically significant incidents occurring on the 15th.

Russian Tsar Nicholas II renounced the throne on March 15, 1917, eventually being imprisoned and executed along with his family. On March 15, 1973 President Richard Nixon expressed confidence that executive privilege would prevail in his defense, an opinion the Supreme Court eventually disagreed with, ultimately leading to his resignation over the Watergate scandal. Kansas Republican Senator Bob Dole’s loss in the Illinois primary on March 15, 1988 persuaded him to withdraw from the presidential race. The New York Post published photos on March 15, 2008 of Ashley Dupre, a high-end escort who had been a favorite of then-New York Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer. He resigned one year later. Illinois Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich surrendered to federal authorities on March 15, 2012 to begin serving a 14-year term for attempting to sell President Barack Obama’s former senate seat.

Recent political events continue to support ‘Ides’ superstitions. John Comey briefed colleagues in a meeting on March 15, 2017 that FBI agents “saw nothing that led them to believe [General Flynn] was lying.” Flynn eventually pled guilty of lying to the FBI. On the same day, FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page exchanged several text messages, a practice which eventually contributed to the dismissal of both people.

Sauce:

https://www.dailycaller.com/2019/03/15/politicians-ides-of-march/

>>5705475 @ >>5705415

>>5705431

Sauce your statement please.

>>5705502

There are no coinkdinks, kek

Sanders’ Wife And Kid Shut Down Their Shady ‘Think Tank’

The Sanders Institute will suspend operations in an effort to stave off extreme scrutiny and criticism that the organization may have blurred familial lines with campaign fundraising. The Institute will no longer accept donations and will cease to operate at least until the end of May “so there could not even be an appearance of impropriety,” presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ wife, Jane Sanders, told The Associated Press. The mission of the Institute is to “revitalize democracy by actively engaging individuals, organizations and the media in the pursuit of progressive solutions to economic, environmental, racial and social justice issues,” according to its website. Among its fellows are founder Jane Sanders, Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King, and presidential hopeful Democratic Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.

Jane Sanders and her son David Driscoll are the co-founders of the Institute. The organization pays Driscoll $100,000 a year for his work at the Institute and Jane Sanders receives no salary. The move comes after Hillary Clinton faced heavy scrutiny regarding her family’s nonprofit, The Clinton Foundation. Then-presidential candidate Bernie Sanders heavily criticized Clinton, suggesting that husband and daughter Bill and Chelsea Clinton’s involvement with the organization may have crossed legal lines. He also accused the organization of providing access to foreign leaders to buy influence into the campaign, The AP reported.

“For a politician who runs on fairness and socialist principles, this looks like the old political games,” said Lawrence R. Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs, according to The AP. As a 501c3 organization, The Sanders Institute isbarred from participating “in any campaign activity for or against political candidates.” The Institute is also prohibited from any substantial involvement in influencing legislation.

The Institute has declined to disclose its donors. “We haven’t disclosed names and contribution amounts because we’ve relied mainly on small donor contributions from thousands of people. The bulk of our donations come from donors that contribute less than $100,” Driscoll said, according to The AP. Federal tax returns reveal the group raised $459,000 in 2017, according to The AP. The Institute raised $730,000 in 2018, Jane Sanders told The AP. She says many of the donations are small and from roughly 10,000 donors. Bernie Sanders raised over $1 million in the first few hours after announcing his 2020 run for president in mid February. The Independent Vermont Senator and self-declared socialist has been a frontrunner in the polls.

“It’s sometimes important to play it safe,” founding board member and actor Danny Glover said, according to The AP. He defended the organization but said that criticism is to be expected, especially from the Democratic Party. “This is a very dangerous moment,” Glover said.

https://www.dailycaller.com/2019/03/15/sanders-closes-think-tank/

EXCLUSIVE: Internal Fusion GPS Report Undercut Steele Dossier Allegation Against Russian Executive

Fusion GPS tapped one of its contractors to investigate allegations made in the Steele dossier against Russian tech executive Aleksej Gubarev.

The dossier alleged Gubarev was recruited as a Russian agent and took part in the hacking of Democrats’ computer systems.

But the internal Fusion GPS report, published here for the first time, painted Gubarev in a positive light. Fusion’s sources doubted Gubarev took part in the alleged hacking.

In an effort to bolster the Steele dossier, Fusion GPS, the firm that commissioned the infamous report, tapped one of its contractors to investigate a Russian businessman accused of hacking Democrats’ computer systems. But that contractor, a Russia expert named Edward Baumgartner, came back with something that was perhaps disappointing to Fusion GPS. According to an internal Fusion GPS report obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation, Baumgartner’s Russian sources painted the Russian, Aleksej Gubarev, in largely positive terms. Unlikely, the sources claimed, had Gubarev taken part in the hacking operation, as former British spy Christopher Steele claimed in his dossier.

“Our interviews of people familiar with Gubarev paint a picture of a relatively well-known person in the IT sector with an entirely positive reputation as a successful self-made entrepreneur,” reads the five-page report, which was provided as evidence in a lawsuit that Gubarev filed against BuzzFeed News. “Our sources were uncertain about Gubarev’s alleged ties to the hacking and collection of compromising material on Trump. Their lack of certainty is entirely understandable given the highly secretive nature of intelligence work, on the one hand, and the technical difficulty of establishing someone’s potential ties to hacking.” A lawyer for Gubarev pressed Fusion GPS co-founder Peter Fritsch about the Baumgartner report during an Aug. 30, 2018, deposition. Fritsch confirmed Baumgartner, a Fusion GPS contractor who speaks Russian, filed the report, which is labeled “PRIVILEGED & CONFIDENTIAL.”

Gubarev sued BuzzFeed and Steele in February 2017 over the dossier, claiming the allegations were defamatory. In one memo, Steele alleged Gubarev was “recruited under duress” by Russia’s intelligence service, the FSB, and was a “significant” player in an operation to use botnets and viruses to steal information from Democrats.

While working for the DNC and Clinton campaign, Fusion GPS hired Steele in June 2016 to investigate Donald Trump’s possible ties to Russia. Steele, a former MI6 officer, produced 17 separate memos laying out an alleged conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russians. Steele’s allegations about Gubarev are laid out in the dossier’s final memo, dated Dec. 13, 2016. Gubarev, who owns the webhosting companies XBT and Webzilla, asserted that neither BuzzFeed nor Steele attempted to vet the claims made in the dossier. The Baumgartner memo suggests Fusion GPS also did not conduct due diligence before BuzzFeed published the dossier. BuzzFeed initially apologized to Gubarev and redacted his name from a version of the dossier it published online Jan. 10, 2017.

A federal judge in Florida ruled in BuzzFeed’s favor Dec. 19, 2018, though Gubarev is appealing the decision. A slew of confidential documents were unsealed in the case Thursday.

https://www.dailycaller.com/2019/03/15/fusion-gps-gubarev-dossier-steele/