Conservative Blogger
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
Kaepernick's visit to meet New York prison inmates irks correction officers
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| This Dec. 24, 2016 photo shows San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick talking during a news conference after an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams. Kaepernick filed a grievance against the NFL on Sunday, Oct. 15, 2017 alleging that he remains unsigned as a result of collusion by owners following his protests during the national anthem. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri) |
The former San Francisco 49ers star spoke to groups of inmates during two 45 minute sessions at the jail’s George Motchan Detention Center Tuesday morning where he pontificated on social justice issues and talked about his decision to kneel during the national anthem, sparking nationwide outrage.
“That’s crazy to me to have a person like Colin Kaepernick in prison talking about police brutality,” said an officer who attended the event. “It was insulting for me to be there.”
“In the inmate’s eyes, we are the police when they’re locked up.”
The morning started off with Kaepernick attending breakfast in the warden’s office before heading over to the “Peace Center” where he conducted two 45 minutes sessions with prisoners clad in gray jumpsuits.
The first group included 14 inmates including six adults and eight adolescents.
'F TRUMP': Texts between ex-Mueller team members emerge, calling Trump 'loathsome human,' 'an idiot'
Text messages between FBI officials Peter Strzok
and Lisa Page in 2016 that were obtained by Fox News on Tuesday refer to
then-candidate Donald Trump as a "loathsome human" and "an idiot."
More than 10,000 texts between Strzok
and Page were being reviewed by the Justice Department after Strzok was
removed from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe after it was
revealed that some of them contained anti-Trump content.
The messages were sent during the 2016 campaign and
contain discussions about various candidates. On March 2, Strzok texted
Page that someone "asked me who I’d vote for, guessed [Ohio Gov. John]
Kasich.""Seriously?! Would you not [vote] D[emocrat]?" Page responded.
"I don’t know," Strzok answered. "I suppose Hillary [Clinton]."
"I would [vote] D," Page affirmed.
Two days later, Page texted Strzok, "God, Trump is a loathsome human."
"Yet he many[sic] win," Strzok responded. "Good for Hillary."
Later the same day, Strzok texted Page, "Omg [Trump's] an idiot."
"He's awful," Page answered.
"America will get what the voting public deserves," said Strzok, to which Page responded. "That’s what I’m afraid of."
Later that same day, Strzok texted Page, "Ok I may vote for Trump."
"What?" answered Page. "Poor Kasich. He’s the only sensible man up there."
"He was pretty much calling for death for [NSA leaker] Edward Snowden," Strzok said. "I’m a single-issue voter. ;) Espionage Machine Party."
Strzok later told Page, "Exacty [sic] re Kasich. And he has ZERO appeal."
Twelve days later, after Trump took a commanding lead in the Republican delegate race with victories in key "Super Tuesday" primaries, Page texted Strzok, "I can not believe Donald Trump is likely to be an actual, serious candidate for president."
Four months later, Strzok and Page exchanged messages mocking Trump and his family at the Republican National Convention.
"Oooh, TURN IT ON, TURN IT ON!!! THE DO*CHEBAGS ARE ABOUT TO COME OUT," Strzok texted Page on July 19. "You can tell by the excitable clapping."
Later, Strzok reached out to Page again, saying, "Omg. You listening to npr? Apparently Melania’s speech had passages lifted from Michelle Obama’s…Unbelievable."
"NO WAY!" Page answered, adding "God, it's just a two-bit organization. I do so hope his disorganization comes to bite him hard in November."
On Aug. 6, Page texted Strzok a New York Times article about Muslim lawyer Khzir Khan, who became embroiled in a war of words with Trump after Khan spoke at the Democratic National Convention.
"Jesus. You should read this. And Trump should go f himself," Page wrote in a message attached to the article.
"God that’s a great article," Strzok answered. "Thanks for sharing. And F TRUMP."
Strzok, who was an FBI counterintelligence agent, was reassigned to the FBI’s human resources division after the discovery of the exchanges with Page, with whom he was having an affair. Page was briefly on Mueller’s team, but has since returned to the FBI.
House Intelligence Committee investigators have long regarded Strzok as a key figure in the chain of events that began when the bureau, in 2016, received the infamous anti-Trump "dossier" and launched a counterintelligence investigation into Russian meddling in the election that ultimately came to encompass FISA surveillance of a Trump campaign associate.
Strzok briefed the committee on Dec. 5, 2016, sources said. But within months of that session House Intelligence Committee investigators were contacted by an informant suggesting that there was “documentary evidence” that Strzok was purportedly obstructing the House probe into the dossier.
Strzok also oversaw the bureau’s interviews with ousted National Security Adviser Michael Flynn – who pleaded guilty to lying to FBI investigators in the Russia probe.
He also was present during the FBI’s July 2016 interview with Hillary Clinton at the close of the email investigation, shortly before then-FBI director James Comey called her actions "extremely careless" without recommending criminal charges.
Trump, Hillary Clinton and others congratulate Doug Jones on Alabama victory
President Donald Trump along with other politicians
from both sides of the aisle reacted late Tuesday after Democratic
Alabama Senate candidate Doug Jones defeated Republican Roy Moore in a special election.
Trump congratulated Jones in a tweet
on his “hard fought victory” and said Republicans will "have another
shot at the seat in a very short period of time.”
Hillary Clinton also took to Twitter to congratulate citizens of Alabama for electing a senator “who’ll make them proud.”“Tonight, Alabama voters elected a senator who'll make them proud,” Clinton tweeted. ”And if Democrats can win in Alabama, we can -- and must -- compete everywhere. Onward!”
Clinton was joined in her enthusiasm by former Vice President Joe Biden, who thanked Alabama in a tweet. Democrats were surely emboldened after winning one of the state's Senate seats.
It was the first Democratic Senate victory in a quarter-century in the state and proved anew that party loyalty is anything but sure in the age of Trump. The Republican loss was a major embarrassment for the president and a fresh wound for the nation’s already divided GOP.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., predicted that Jones is going to be an “outstanding senator” and lambasted Moore’s candidacy.
“Roy Moore was an awful candidate and never should have gotten to the senate. But make no mistake about it, just like Virginia, Democrats are energized, focused on the middle class and those struggling to get there, and things are looking better and better for 2018,” Schumer wrote.
Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who has been an outspoken critic of the Trump administration, tweeted two words: “Decency wins.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., congratulated Jones on being a great candidate and said that was the reason why he won over Moore.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said that Jones’ win is a “victory for showing up, fighting to the end.”
With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Fox News projected that Jones received 49.5 percent of the vote, while Moore received 48.8 percent of the vote.
Alabama Senate election: Doug Jones wins in major upset, Roy Moore won't yet concede
Democrat Doug Jones has pulled off a major upset in
Alabama by defeating Republican Roy Moore in Tuesday’s special
election, becoming the first Democrat to win election to the Senate from
the deeply conservative state in 25 years.
"We have come so far and the people of Alabama have spoken," Jones said during a victory speech in Birmingham late Tuesday.
But in a late-night speech to supporters, Moore refused
to concede. Moore told the crowd that when the “vote is this close…it’s
not over.”With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Jones had 49.9 percent to Moore's 48.4 percent.
Moore said the campaign was looking into the state's "recount provision." Under Alabama law, a mandatory recount takes place if a candidate wins by a half percent or less.
“We also know that God is always in control,” he said.
Bill Armistead, his campaign chairman, floated a possible recount late Tuesday.
Other Republicans, though, already accepted the outcome. In a tweet, President Trump congratulated Jones on his “hard fought victory.”
“The write-in votes played a very big factor, but a win is a win,” Trump said. “The people of Alabama are great, and the Republicans will have another shot at this seat in a very short period of time. It never ends!”
A Democrat winning the special election for the seat to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions was seen as just a remote possibility several months ago.
Moore, the former chief justice of Alabama’s Supreme Court, has faced multiple allegations he pursued romantic relationships with teenage girls while he was in his thirties -- accusations that have dramatically shaken up the race. He has denied the claims.
The Fox News Voter Analysis, a new polling technique Fox News is testing to improve coverage, indicated 51 percent of voters on Tuesday believed the accusations against Moore.
The analysis also showed that 59 percent of voters thought Jones has strong moral character, while 57 percent said Moore doesn’t.
The dramatic Democratic win cuts the GOP’s Senate majority from 52 to 51, further dimming Republican hopes of enacting major legislation backed by President Trump. Jones likely won't be seated in Congress until January.
Because he is filling the rest of Sessions' term, Jones will not serve a full six year Senate term. The seat will be up for re-election again in 2020.
“The people of Alabama will do the right thing... Roy Moore will always vote with us,” the president tweeted.
Trump painted Jones as a liberal “puppet” of Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.
“Doug Jones is Pro-Abortion, weak on Crime, Military and Illegal Immigration, Bad for Gun Owners and Veterans and against the WALL,” Trump tweeted.
Trump won 62 percent of Alabama’s vote in the 2016 presidential race.
Most of the attention in the race, though, centered on Moore. A favorite of religious conservative voters, he has a colorful political history that has both fueled and complicated his rise in Alabama.
He first got national attention in the 1990s as a county judge when he hung a wooden Ten Commandments plaque on the wall of his courtroom.
Benefiting from his popularity after the episode, Moore then ran and won a race for chief justice of the state’s Supreme Court in 2000. But he was ousted after refusing to remove a 5,280-pound granite Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the state judicial building.
He resurrected his political career in 2012, getting elected chief justice again. But his tenure was short-lived once more: In 2016, Moore was suspended as chief justice after he directed probate judges not to issue marriage certificates to gay couples.
After Sessions’ resignation, Luther Strange, the state’s former attorney general, was temporarily appointed to the seat in April before a special election could take place. Strange was appointed by then-Gov. Robert Bentley, who later resigned in the cloud of a scandal.
Despite being endorsed by Trump and enjoying the support of a well-funded super PAC connected to Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, Strange went on to lose a runoff to Moore in September.
Last month, though, Moore was hit with multiple allegations that he initiated sexual encounters with teenagers when he was a young attorney in the 1970s.
McConnell called on Moore to drop out of the race and explored options for either removing Moore from the ballot or backing a write-in alternative. He also suggested Moore would face a Senate Ethics Committee investigation had he won.
Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, had said the Senate could take the extraordinary step of voting to remove Moore if he had won.
Alabama’s senior Republican senator, Richard Shelby, said he didn’t vote for Moore and instead wrote in the name of another Republican.
Moore, though, never backed down amid the accusations, holding multiple rallies with Trump’s former adviser, Steve Bannon, in recent weeks.
“I’m not talking about the accusers today,” Moore said after arriving at his polling location in Gallant, Alabama, on Tuesday. “I’m talking about this race... the people will answer the allegations this evening with the vote.”
Tuesday, December 12, 2017
CNN ridiculed for accusing Trump of bullying ‘dumbest man on television’ Don Lemon
CNN has accused President Trump of bullying Don
Lemon in a tweet that called the polarizing anchor the “dumbest man on
television.”
Trump slammed The New York Times on
Monday morning over what he called a “false” story claiming he watches
up to eight hours of television a day – while taking yet another swipe
at CNN and MSNBC. The Times article detailed Trump’s “hour-by-hour battle for self-preservation,” describing how he sometimes “hate-watches” CNN’s Lemon.
“Another false story, this time in the Failing @nytimes,
that I watch 4-8 hours of television a day - Wrong! Also, I seldom, if
ever, watch CNN or MSNBC, both of which I consider Fake News. I never
watch Don Lemon, who I once called the “dumbest man on television!” Bad
Reporting,” Trump tweeted on Monday morning.CNN quickly issued a statement, accusing Trump of bullying the 51-year-old anchor.
“In a world where bullies torment kids on social media to devastating effect on a regular basis with insults and name calling, it is sad to see our president engaging in the very same behavior himself. Leaders should lead by example,” CNN said.
Former CNN political analyst Jeff Greenfield isn’t a fan of CNN’s statement and mocked his old network.
“Unless Don Lemon is a LOT younger than he appears to be, this is a tone-deaf overreach. From what I've seen, Lemon--unlike bullied kids whose school officials ignore the issue--is more than capable of standing up for himself. This almost infantilizes him,” he tweeted.
Fox News contributor Stephen Miller joked, “CNN just compared themselves to a crying kid in a car and they think that's the high road.”
President Trump has an ongoing feud with CNN, which has essentially implemented an anti-Trump programming strategy. As a result, the president often refers to CNN as “fake news” and the network has launched an advertising campaign in an attempt to shake that moniker with a “Facts First” initiative.
CNN had to issue an embarrassing correction on Friday when the Washington Post debunked the network's report claiming the Trump campaign had early, secret access to hacked DNC emails from WikiLeaks. The network on Friday inaccurately trumpeted that Congressional investigators obtained a mysterious 2016 email that was sent to Trump and other top aides, including Donald Trump Jr., which contained information on how to get a sneak peek at hacked information that WikiLeaks had acquired. The email, as CNN reported, offered a “decryption key” to access the files – but the network botched the date on the email, rendering the entire report irrelevant.
In addition, CNN on Monday gently backpedaled a report from earlier this year that bashed Attorney General Jeff Sessions for failing to disclose meetings he had with Russian officials when he applied for his security clearance – but it turns out he wasn’t required to.
Wife of demoted DOJ official worked for firm behind anti-Trump dossier
A senior Justice Department official demoted last week for concealing his meetings with the men behind the anti-Trump “dossier” had even closer ties to Fusion GPS, the firm responsible for the incendiary document, than have been disclosed, Fox News has confirmed: The official’s wife worked for Fusion GPS during the 2016 election.
Contacted by Fox News, investigators
for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI)
confirmed that Nellie H. Ohr, wife of the demoted official, Bruce G.
Ohr, worked for the opposition research firm last year. The precise
nature of Mrs. Ohr’s duties – including whether she worked on the
dossier – remains unclear but a review of her published works available
online reveals Mrs. Ohr has written extensively on Russia-related
subjects. HPSCI staff confirmed to Fox News that she was paid by Fusion
GPS through the summer and fall of 2016.
Fusion GPS has attracted scrutiny because Republican
lawmakers have spent the better part of this year investigating whether
the dossier, which was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the
Democratic National Committee, served as the basis for the Justice
Department and the FBI to obtain FISA surveillance last year on a Trump
campaign adviser named Carter Page.“The House Intelligence Committee,” Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., told Fox News in a statement on Monday, “is looking into all facets of the connections between the Department of Justice and Fusion GPS, including Mr. Ohr.”
Until Dec. 6, when Fox News began making inquiries about him, Bruce Ohr held two titles at DOJ. He was, and remains, director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force; but his other job was far more senior. Mr. Ohr held the rank of associate deputy attorney general, a post that gave him an office four doors down from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. The day before Fox News reported that Mr. Ohr held his secret meetings last year with the founder of Fusion GPS, Glenn Simpson, and with Christopher Steele, the former British spy who compiled the dossier, the Justice Department stripped Ohr of his deputy title and ousted him from his fourth floor office at the building that DOJ insiders call “Main Justice.”
The Department of Justice has provided no public explanation for Ohr’s demotion. Officials inside the Department have told Fox News his wearing of two hats was “unusual,” but also confirm Ohr had withheld his contacts with the Fusion GPS men from colleagues at the DOJ.
Bruce G. Ohr was demoted at the DOJ for concealing his meetings with the men behind the anti-Trump 'dossier.'
(AP)
The disclosure by Fox News that Bruce Ohr met with Simpson and Steele last year expanded the reach of the dossier’s creators from the FBI into the top echelons of the Justice Department. Initial investigation suggested that Steele, a longtime FBI informant whose contacts with Mr. Ohr are said to date back a decade, might have played the central role in putting Simpson together with the associate deputy attorney general. Now, the revelation that Mrs. Ohr worked for Simpson calls that account into question.
A review of open source materials shows Mrs. Ohr was described as a Russia expert at the Wilson Center, a Washington think tank, when she worked there, briefly, a decade ago. The Center’s website said her project focused on the experiences of Russian farmers during Stalin’s collectivization program and following the invasion of Russia by Nazi forces in 1941. She has also reviewed a number of books about twentieth century Russia, including Reconstructing the State: Personal Networks and Elite Identity in Soviet Russia (2000), by Gerald Easter, a political scientist at Boston College, and Bertrand M. Patenaude’s The Big Show in Bololand: The American Relief Expedition to Soviet Russia in the Famine of 1921 (2002).
Contacted by Fox News late Monday, DOJ officials declined to comment.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the ranking Democrat on the intelligence committee, declined to comment on the original disclosure about Mr. Ohr’s secret meetings, and did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Mrs. Ohr.
While Nunes has issued numerous subpoenas to DOJ and FBI relating to the dossier, and has threatened contempt-of-Congress citations against Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray for what congressional Republicans have termed “stonewalling” by the two agencies, Schiff has mostly objected to the demands for documents and witnesses, casting the entire dossier probe as innately political. “I think there's a hope that if they can impeach Christopher Steele, and they can impeach the FBI and DOJ, maybe they can impeach the whole Russia investigation,” Schiff told MSNBC in September.
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