Trump Ally Erik Prince Reportedly Under FBI Investigation

The FBI is systematically going after every prominent person who helped Donald Trump win the presidency in 2016.

It doesn't matter if you were a loyal servant of the establishment in the past, as is the case with Blackwater founder Erik Prince, helping Trump win was a crime worse than murder.

From The Intercept, "FBI Is Investigating Erik Prince for Weaponizing Crop Dusters":

LAST MAY, SHORTLY after Congress accused Erik Prince of lying under oath and referred criminal charges to the Justice Department, an associate approached the Blackwater founder to offer help and commiserate about Prince’s potential legal jeopardy.

Prince, who once moved to the United Arab Emirates to avoid being caught up in a federal prosecution, immediately dismissed the associate’s concerns. He was untouchable, he bragged, and would face no legal troubles.

“Not under this guy,” Prince said referring to President Donald Trump, according to a person with direct knowledge of the exchange.

It's hard to believe he would say something so stupid considering what's happened to Stone, Flynn, Manafort, etc.

That assumption is about to be tested.

Prince, an heir to a billion-dollar fortune who is widely viewed as a shadow adviser to the president, is under federal investigation for his 2015 attempt to modify two American-made crop-dusting planes into attack aircraft — a violation of arms trafficking regulations — two people familiar with the investigation told The Intercept. The planes became part of private military services Prince proposed to sell or use in mercenary operations in Africa and Azerbaijan, as The Intercept has previously reported.

The investigation into the modified crop dusters is one of several ongoing probes targeting Prince. Another focuses on the allegations that he lied to Congress during the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russia’s 2016 presidential election interference; a third concerns a 2017 armed aviation proposal to the UAE, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Under normal circumstances, this would not be an issue. Servants of the establishment are allowed to engage in brazenly criminal behavior without facing any repercussions.

Former FBI director James Comey, for example, was allowed to entrap Michael Flynn and then go on MSNBC and laugh about "[getting] away with" it without facing any charges.

http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=61225

This is becoming an absolute joke. The markets are so stretched that even Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan are talking about it being unsustainable! This is insane.

The stock market dropped and traders were confused “hey wait a minute, stocks can drop?!” But slowly throughout the day they began to climb. Although they remained in the negative, thankfully complacency is definitely back on so we can keep the party going. Nothing worse than facts to spoil a good party, that’s for sure. Keep the music blasting to drown out all that information stuff and fill your head with three letters: B.U.Y.

Markets: Indexes, Bonds, Forex, Key Commodities, ETFs

www.cnbc.com/markets/

Assets: Total Assets: Total Assets (Less Eliminations From Consolidation): Wednesday Level (WALCL) | FRED | St. Louis Fed

fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WALCL

Fed staff float plan to end term-repo after April, minutes show – Reuters

www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed-minutes-repo/fed-staff-float-plan-to-end-term-repo-after-april-minutes-show-idUSKBN20D2R4

Goldman Sees High Risk of Stock Market Correction on Virus Complacency – BNN Bloomberg

www.bnnbloomberg.ca/goldman-sees-high-risk-of-stock-market-correction-on-virus-complacency-1.1393005

Cass Transportation Index Report | January 2020 | Cass Information Systems

www.cassinfo.com/freight-audit-payment/cass-transportation-indexes/january-2020

Dana Lyons’ Tumblr — Options Traders Showing No Fear

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www.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/2020-02-20_6-21-11.jpg?itok=GsHTHjTs

America’s manufacturing recession looks like it could be over

www.cnbc.com/2020/02/20/americas-manufacturing-recession-looks-like-it-could-be-over.html

Fed Vice Chair Clarida throws cold water on traders pricing in a rate cut

www.cnbc.com/2020/02/20/clarida-on-squawk-.html

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www.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/option%20investors%20MS.jpg?itok=a47WhSpC

Virgin Galactic stock SPCE overdue for correction after rally: Morgan Stanley

www.cnbc.com/2020/02/20/virgin-galactic-stock-spce-overdue-for-correction-after-rally-morgan-stanley.html

Virgin Galactic volatile trading as space tourism stock SPCE tops $40

www.cnbc.com/2020/02/20/virgin-galactic-shares-jump-as-space-tourism-stock-spce-tops-40.html

Gold surges to 7-year high as investors seek safety trade

www.cnbc.com/2020/02/20/gold-surges-to-7-year-high-as-investors-seek-safety-trade.html

IMF says Argentine debt ‘unsustainable,’ calls on bondholders to help resolve crisis | Financial Post

business.financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/imf-says-argentine-debt-unsustainable-calls-on-bondholders-to-help-resolve-crisis

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/this-is-becoming-an-absolute-joke-the-markets-are-so-stretched-that-even-goldman-sachs-and-jp-morgan-are-talking-about-it-being-unsustainable-this-is-insane/

Putin & Erdogan to ‘intensify contacts’ over Syria, but no sign of peace in Idlib yet

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan talked Syria over the phone, as their troops squared off in Idlib province. The topics of Syrian sovereignty and terrorist threat loomed large.

Putin expressed “serious concern about the ongoing aggressive actions of extremist groups,” and emphasized the need for “unconditional respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of Syria, the Kremlin readout of Friday’s phone conversation said. Moscow and Ankara agreed to “intensify bilateral interagency consultations on Idlib,” along with intensive military contacts.

It wasn’t clear how that would translate on the ground in Idlib, where Turkey keeps sending troops and tanks.

Ankara’s redout provided to the Turkish press says that Erdogan told Putin that “Assad regime's actions and the consequent humanitarian crisis must be stopped in Idlib.”

Speaking to reporters in Istanbul ahead of the phone call with Putin, the Turkish leader said there will not be a truce unless the Syrian forces stop their “cruelty.”

"Unless the regime stops the persecution of the people of Idlib at this point, it is not possible to withdraw from there,” Erdogan said, according to Daily Sabah.

https://www.rt.com/news/481430-putin-erdogan-phone-syria/

Facebook Offers to Pay For Users’ Private Data Including Voice Records

After facing criticism from the public and lawmakers over the non-consensual collection of data, Facebook has started offering to pay its users for personal information including recordings of their own voice.

The recordings, made through its new market research app Viewpoints, will help to train the speech recognition system that powers Facebook’s Portal device which the company has high hopes will become a contender with other voice assistants, including Amazon’s Echo speakers and its Alexa virtual assistant.

The Viewpoints app, which was revealed three months ago as a portal for conducting surveys about user experiences, began to invite users in the US to say “Hey Portal” and the names of up to 10 friends. The recording process is giving users points which can be converted into a $5 cash reward.

Facebook has indicated that Viewpoint was initially designed to “improve speech understanding” by training machine-learning algorithms, which require a large number of examples to improve their accuracy and performance.

“Participants record phrases within the app, which helps us improve name pronunciation recognition in our products to better serve the people that use them,” a Facebook spokesperson said.

In the description on the service’s website, the social media giant wrote that the information gathered with Viewpoint activity won’t be shared on Facebook or on other linked accounts without users’ permission, or be sold to third parties. However, the Viewpoints data policy notes that some information collected using the app, such as payment and device data, can be used to personalize other Facebook apps and target advertising. It could also be shared with “research partners,” including academics, publishers and advertisers, however, Facebook promised that users will be notified if this happens.

Makers of smart speakers including Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google faced criticism last year when it was revealed that they were sending users’ voice recordings to human moderators without the consent or awareness of the customers. The media companies promised to stop such practices and ended their partnerships with several data centres worldwide.

https://sputniknews.com/science/202002221078375812-facebook-offers-pay-users-private-data-voice-records/

Delingpole: Now Boris’s Green Gestapo Are Coming for Your Coal Fires

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s latest green assault on property rights and freedom is to ban coal fires.

From February next year, bags of traditional house coal will be banned from sale, with deliveries of loose coal phased out by 2023. There will also be restrictions on the kind of wood you are allowed to burn, newly cut (green) wood to be made illegal.

Together with a mooted ban on gas-fired boilers and gas-fired cookers — both extremely popular in the country — the new, green-obsessed administration appears to be signalling that an Englishman’s home is no longer his castle and that his hearth now belongs to the government.

This intrusive and vexatious act of gesture politics will, of course, make no measurable difference to ‘climate change’. But it will hurt lots of rural households where the glow of a coal fire is still a welcome respite from the damp and misery of a country winter; and also working-class communities in areas like the north of England, where coal is still a source of convenient and cheap energy.

Among those condemning the decision is science writer, environmentalist and peer Lord Ridley, who says:

“In the northeast of England, especially in rural areas, there are many people who still heat their homes with coal, in some cases by preference rather than for want of alternatives. It’s cheap and they only pay when they need to. This ban will hit poor people in rural areas, where there is not an air pollution problem anyway. Plus, bizarrely, you get a higher — yes, higher!! — energy-performance certificate for a house with a coal-fired heating system than one using oil or gas. So the requirement to pass an EPC test before selling or renting a house could make houses unsellable if they are forced to spend a lot of money converting to gas. This has not been thought through, and it is a move that could have been designed to punish northerners.”

Benny Peiser, director of the Global Warming Policy Forum, echoes Ridley’s concerns. He says:

“This is really, really stupid. Boris seems to be doing everything possible to make life more difficult for as many people as possible. Eventually, just like Macron in France, he’ll pay a huge price for this.”

The ban on domestic coal and wet wood was announced by Environment Secretary George ‘Useless’ Eustice, who said:

“Cosy open fires and wood-burning stoves are at the heart of many homes up and down the country, but the use of certain fuels means that they are also the biggest source of the most harmful pollutant that is affecting people in the UK. By moving toward the use of cleaner fuels such as dry wood we can all play a part in improving the health of millions of people.”

This health claim is at best moot. First, coal fires are already banned where they are likely to pose any kind of health threat — in towns and cities. Second, as Steve Milloy has demonstrated, the threat of small particulate pollution — notably PM2.5 — has been massively oversold by the environmental lobby.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/02/21/eco-tyrant-boris-bans-coal-fires/

=Peter Strzok Email Reveals Hillary Clinton Apologized to FBI For Her Private Server – But Apology Was “Not In” FBI 302 Report Documenting Her Interview

Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch obtained 191 pages of emails between Peter Strzok and his FBI lover Lisa Page.

An August 26, 2016 email sent from Peter Strzok reveals Hillary Clinton apologized to the FBI about her private server, however her apology was ‘not in’ the FBI 302 report which summarized the interview.

The new tranche of emails also reveals Peter Strzok may have additional details on the classified FBI briefing of then-candidate Donald Trump that were used to launch a spy op.

Judicial Watch reported (emphasis our own):

The new records include an August 26, 2016, email from CNN’s Even Perez to Michael Kortan, the FBI’s assistant director for public affairs, saying: “Do you know if Gowdy is right that the FBI didn’t ask Clinton about her intent? And is that weird?”

Kortan forwards the email to Strzok, saying, “The question of the day …”

Strzok replies to Kortan, “I know, I was getting increasingly irritated at Gowdy last night. I don’t know the basis for him saying that. We certainly asked her. She said she did it for convenience, because she wanted one system for email. We also asked those close to her – Abedin and Mills specifically – who said the same thing.

“[Redacted] but we can find the references in the 302 which discuss it.

“Though not in the 302, at the end of the interview she apologized for the work and effort it created for the FBI. She said words to the effect of, I’m sorry this has caused so much work and expenditure of resources by the FBI. I chose to use my own server out of convenience; it proved to be anything but.”

Strzok forwarded the exchange to Page, saying, “Need to nip this in the bud.”

“So now we know that the FBI report of Clinton’s ‘interview’ is incomplete and that Peter Strzok may have details on the classified briefing of candidate Trump that were used as pretext for a spy operation. No wonder the FBI had been stonewalling the release of these emails” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/02/peter-strzok-email-reveals-hillary-clinton-apologized-to-fbi-for-her-private-server-but-apology-was-not-in-fbi-302-report-documenting-her-interview/

Twitter Tool Could See 'Verified' Users Given Power To Label "Lies" & "Harmful" Tweets

Twitter is preparing to roll out more ways it intends to censor and "label" speech. The company is also experimenting with giving only blue checkmark "verified" fact-checkers and journalists the power to identify "lies" and label and edit accordingly. What could possibly go wrong?

"Twitter is experimenting with adding brightly colored labels directly beneath lies and misinformation posted by politicians and other public figures, according to a leaked demo of new features" obtained by NBC, which first broke the story Thursday.

"We're exploring a number of ways to address misinformation and provide more context for tweets on Twitter," a Twitter spokesperson said. "Misinformation is a critical issue and we will be testing many different ways to address it."

Get ready for a potential new Twitter where essentially all utterances and perspectives on controversial events and data will have to pass through blue checkmark gatekeepers.

This is an astounding and Orwellian section from the NBC report:

In this version, disinformation or misleading information posted by public figures would be corrected directly beneath a tweet by fact-checkers and journalists who are verified on the platform and possibly by other users who would participate in a new "community reports" feature, which the demo claims is "like Wikipedia."

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/twitter-tool-could-see-verified-users-given-power-label-lies-misleading-tweets

New Video Reveals How Syrian Army, Russian Aerospace Forces Annihilated Turkish Forces Around Al-Nayrab

On February 21, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) released a video revealing the catastrophic losses the Turkish military and its proxies sustained during their recent failed attack on the town of al-Nayrab in southern Idlib.

The attack saw the direct participation of the Turkish military, which provided al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the National Front for Liberation (NFL) with heavy weapons and fire support.

The SANA’s video, which was filmed by Syrian and Russian drones, shows how the SAA and the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) annihilated most of the attackers.

Syrian and Russian strikes destroyed four M60 Sabra MK II of the Turkish Armed Forces, as well as several vehicles, including ACV-15 and M113 armored personnel carriers (APCs). Some of these vehicles were being operated by HTS and the NFL.

Earlier today, the Syrian state TV revealed that more than 250 Syrian militants were killed in the failed attack. Turkey, from its side, acknowledged that two of its service members were killed. The new footage suggest that more Turkish soldiers may have lost their lives.

Despite the catastrophic losses sustained by its army and proxies in al-Nayrab, Turkey may attempt to launch another attack soon. Ankara is apparently desperate for any achievement that could improve its political stand.

https://southfront.org/new-video-reveals-how-syrian-army-russian-aerospace-forces-annihilated-turkish-forces-around-al-nayrab/