TYB
Full Remarks: Pompeo Details new US-Ethiopia ties
https://archive.ph/BA1wa
https://todaynewsafrica.com/full-remarks-as-pompeo-and-foreign-minister-gedu-andargachew-detail-new-u-s-ethiopia-ties-in-addis/
>Soros calls for Zuckerberg, Sandberg to step down from Facebook in scathing letter.
>https://archive.ph/OgPDx
NOTABLE
Christina Oxenberg recalls thinking old pal Ghislaine Maxwell was a ‘raving lunatic’
More eyes are reading about Ghislaine Maxwell than seeing her. Now we hear from her longtime, oldtime friend/acquaintance Christina Oxenberg.
“I remember it: 1997. Never forget it. We were alone. Pacing around her living room, hands on her hips, the defiance of a champion gladiator, she said many things. All creepy. Unorthodox. Strange. I could not believe whatever she was saying was real.
“Stuff like: ‘Jeffrey and I have everyone on video tape!’
“I didn’t have it in me to ask anything additional. Like, if she’d actually had the actual consent of those people she videotaped. Or even who they were. I wish I had asked. At the time, I heard a lot of things, none of which had the ring of truth. In fact, I thought the woman was a raving lunatic. But I wasn’t comfortable. I was keen to get away, and I figured the less I asked the sooner I get out.
“I have since told the FBI what I know. They asked if I’m willing to testify should it be necessary, and I said, ‘Absolutely yes.’
“I care that the women victimized as children are given some form of reparation. Maxwell’s millions are a good place to start.”
Christina Oxenberg will serialize chunks of this in her Patreon publication “Secrets.”
https://pagesix.com/2020/02/18/christina-oxenberg-recalls-thinking-old-pal-ghislaine-maxwell-was-a-raving-lunatic/
What Obama Is Saying in Private About the Democratic Primary
Democratic leaders, whose two primary concerns these days are trying to keep Donald Trump in check and maintaining their own party’s unity, have had ample reason for concern in the first seven weeks of 2020. There was the end of Trump’s impeachment trial, the Iowa caucus fiasco, and the growing certainty that their intensifying presidential nominating contest will likely drag on for months. One Thursday afternoon in late January, they briefly had another worry to contend with: the entire party losing its mind after a Fox Business reporter tweeted a “SCOOP” that Barack Obama “is growing increasingly anxious about @BernieSanders rise in the national polls & where the avowed socialist would take the country; he is considering a public statement addressing it.” The report was quickly rubbished by those close to the former president — such an action would obviously be painfully out of character for the studiously quiet Obama, who has always been judicious about weighing in on Democratic primary fights, and whose defining post-presidential quality has been distance. But the tweet and ensuing hysteria did renew an unsettling round of questions among candidates, elected officials, campaign strategists, voters, and donors: Well, what does Obama think of all of this?
The truth of Obama’s silence on the 2020 primary is that it’s not just about his obvious wish to stay out of the spotlight, but it also reflects a choreographed strategy. With the race looking more and more likely to grow bitter and messy, and maybe even wind up in a contested convention, the former president and those around him are increasingly sure he will need to play a prominent role in bringing the party back together and calming its tensions later this summer, including perhaps in Milwaukee, where the party’s meeting is scheduled to be held in July. So he is committed to not allowing his personal thoughts to dribble out in the meantime, directly or via leaks, conscious of how any sense that he’s taking sides in intraparty disputes could rock the primary in the short run and potentially undermine his ability to play this larger role in the months ahead. “He says one sentence about being woke at some conference, and the Twitterverse freaks out,” recalled one of his friends, referring to the former president’s comments at an Obama Foundation meeting in Chicago that set off a firestorm. He and his advisors “are very aware [of the effect of] one word that Barack Obama says.” And he’s being careful to ensure he can be seen as an honest broker in June and July — a potentially necessary designation given both his status as the party’s most popular figure and the real possibility that Sanders, or another candidate, could enter the summer with a plurality of the delegates needed for the nomination but not an outright victory. “Obama is going to look at the [delegate math to determine] the outcome. If the math brings someone [to the nomination], he’ll back it in full,” one person who still speaks with the former president told me recently. “His biggest dilemma is if Bernie is at 35-40 [percent of the delegates], and no one else is [at] 20. Does he say, ‘You have to go with who won [a plurality of] the delegates, and who looks to be the true front-runner?’”
But Obama is hardly the only Democrat sweating that particular possibility, especially with Michael Bloomberg — who some in Obama’s orbit favor but many regard warily — poised to swoop in on the process in March. Sorting out that confusion might be the most complicated scenario for Obama, the person added. The reality might be more simple: “It’s not gonna happen before the convention, [but] he’s gonna be all-in for Bernie if he’s the nominee.”
Watching from afar, Obama is for now sticking to the plan he set out at the beginning of the election cycle. He’s been going out of his way to remind worried Democrats who come to him that his 2008 primary was long and brutal, and still ended in his election. And his purposeful distance from the race isn’t all about managing party factions in the short-term. He speaks with fewer people regularly about politics than ever — he rarely even talks with Tom Perez, the former Labor secretary he helped install as Democratic National Committee chairman, for example — in part because he is less interested in the back-and-forth than he was even as president, when his lack of patience for political horse-trading and debating was notorious.
(cont.)
https://archive.ph/wRHHw
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/02/what-obama-is-saying-in-private-about-the-democratic-primary.html
Trudeau Offers No Plan To Deal With Crisis As Natives Blockade Two Bridges To US
OTTAWA — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed the House of Commons in Ottawa Tuesday morning about escalating blockades that threaten the economy and could lead to shortages of fuel and food.
But he offered no plan. “People are troubled by what they have been witnessing this past week … They’re asking themselves what is happening in this country. They’re asking what lies ahead for themselves, for their communities and their country. They know that these protests are serious, that this is a critical moment for our country and our future. So do I.”
Conservative Party Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer was quick to call the speech “the weakest response to a national crisis in Canadian history.”
In apparent solidarity with blockades that have brought both passenger and freight rail traffic to a standstill, Mohawk natives stopped all traffic from Canada to the United States — at the Niagara Falls Rainbow Bridge on Sunday and the Thousand Islands bridge on Monday. (RELATED: Trudeau Criticized For Bowing To Iranian Foreign Minister As He Seeks UN Security Council Seat)
Trudeau has refused to intervene in a blockade that has brought all rail traffic in Canada to a stop. Environmental activists, claiming to represent First Nations, have stopped all freight and passenger rail service in Canada to protest a court decision to proceed with a natural gas pipeline.
Although Trudeau acknowledged that “people are upset and frustrated: I get it,” he suggested there was no solution on the horizon.
https://dailycaller.com/2020/02/18/justin-trudeau-no-plan-crisis-natives-blockade-bridges-us/
DOJ & Dershowitz
Alan Dershowitz Peddling Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories To Breitbart
https://www.wonkette.com/does-alan-dershowitz-wear-panties-when-hes-peddling-anti-semitic-conspiracy-theories-to-breitbart
Trump, Barr, and Dershowitz – Nothing New Under the Sun
So, if Kennedy’s wingman was his brother and Mr. Obama’s was Eric Holder, why now the hue and cry over the Trump-Barr connection?
https://www.libertynation.com/trump-barr-and-dershowitz-nothing-new-under-the-sun/
McConnell, Graham and McCarthy vow efforts to 'intimidate' Barr will 'fall woefully short'
Top congressional Republicans issued a joint statement Tuesday in defense of Attorney General Bill Barr, who has faced renewed Democratic calls to step aside after he overruled line prosecutors' nine-year sentencing recommendation for former Trump aide Roger Stone.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., emphasized that Barr has the "highest character and unquestionable integrity" – and they said Democrats' efforts to "intimidate" him would fail spectacularly.
“Suggestions from outside groups that the attorney general has fallen short of the responsibilities of his office are unfounded," the Republican leaders wrote, in an apparent shot at Protect Democracy – a left-wing organization that solicited signatures from more than 1,000 ex-DOJ officials to call for Barr's resignation in the guise of a nonpartisan effort.
“The American system of government is only as strong as the public servants who are willing to preserve, protect and defend it," the congressional Republicans added. "The nation is fortunate that President Trump chose such a strong and selfless public servant to lead the Department of Justice. We expect that, as always, efforts to intimidate the attorney general will fall woefully short.”
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mcconnell-graham-and-mccarthy-line-up-in-defense-of-barr
KEK
https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1229882118005592064
Prince Andrew’s family reportedly struggles to find attendees for his 60th bash
Prince Andrew’s family is scrambling to send last-minute invites to his 60th birthday on Wednesday — because he is being “shunned” by so many former friends, according to a report.
The scandal-scarred royal is celebrating hitting the milestone age Wednesday with a private dinner at Royal Lodge, the Windsor residence he shares with his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson.
It is already a downscaled celebration after his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, scrapped a lavish party in the aftermath of his disastrous attempts to justify his friendship with late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Now they are struggling to even fill the smaller party because so many people are saying they are “unavailable,” according to the Daily Mail.
To save embarrassment, last-minute invites are being sent to “second-tier guests” to make up the numbers, according to the UK paper, which says it highlights Andrew’s “dizzying fall from grace.”
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are believed to be among those who have snubbed the party, and are instead sending a gift and a video message to be played there, according to the Sun.
A recent policy change also means there is “no requirement” for local councils to fly flags to mark the occasion, as had previously been the case, because Andrew is no longer performing royal duties.
https://nypost.com/2020/02/18/prince-andrews-family-reportedly-struggles-to-find-attendees-for-his-60th-bash/