| Ted Cruz is 'just a coward' for backing Trump, former aide Rick Tyler says Posted: 24 Aug 2020 03:23 PM PDT  Rick Tyler, a leading Republican analyst and so-called Never Trumper, told Yahoo News on Monday that his former boss Sen. Ted Cruz is "just a coward" for publicly supporting Trump even though he knows he's a bad president.
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| Louisiana protesters call for Lafayette mayor-president to resign after police shooting Posted: 24 Aug 2020 04:09 AM PDT  Protesters gathered for the second night after Trayford Pellerin's death, first in front of Lafayette City Hall and later with several demonstrations.
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| Rumors about Kim Jong Un dying are going viral again, but experts say not to believe them Posted: 24 Aug 2020 04:04 AM PDT  A former South Korean minister claimed that Kim was in a coma, triggering a wave of social media posts speculating on his death.
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| Foreign Secretary 'will be asked to mediate in Middle East peace process' on Israel visit Posted: 24 Aug 2020 08:10 AM PDT  Britain's Foreign Secretary will be asked to act as a "bridge" between Israelis and Palestinians to mediate in the stalled Middle East peace process during a joint visit to Jerusalem and the Occupied Territories on Tuesday. Amid rising security tensions in the Gaza Strip, Dominic Raab is due to meet with both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and will urge renewed dialogue between their governments in favour of a peaceful two-state solution, the Foreign Office said. Israel's foreign ministry on Monday hailed the "unique timing" of the visit, a day after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Mr Netanyahu to discuss the Trump administration's own "deal of the century" peace plan, which has been roundly rejected by the Palestinian leadership. While Mr Pompeo did not meet with Palestinian leaders, Mr Raab's visit presented "a good opportunity to ask the British to impress upon the Palestinians to come to the negotiating table with us… it's good timing," said Anna Azari, Israel's deputy director general for European affairs. Mr Raab's trip was previously postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, and now comes shortly after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) became only the third Arab country to normalise relations with Israel, amid a US-led drive to counter Iran's influence in the region. "The UK remains committed to Israel's security and stability, and the recent normalisation of relations between Israel and the UAE was an important moment for the region," Mr Raab said in a statement. The UAE-Israeli deal has been loudly celebrated by President Trump but has been condemned by the Palestinians, as well as regional powers such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. As part of the agreement, Mr Netanyahu has paused his controversial planned annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank that Palestinians consider integral to their proposed future state. "Israel's suspension of annexation is an essential step towards a more peaceful Middle East," Mr Raab added. "It is important to build on this new dynamic, and ultimately only the government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority can negotiate the two-state solution required to secure lasting peace." During his visit, the Foreign Secretary is also due to meet Benny Gantz, the opposition leader who now shares power with Mr Netanyahu as defence minister and alternate prime minister in an uneasy coalition. Speaking after his own meeting with the Israeli prime minister in Jerusalem, Mr Pompeo said on Monday that he was confident other nations would soon follow the UAE in agreeing official diplomatic ties with Israel. But both he and Mr Netanyahu criticised the lack of international support for Washington's call to restore United Nations sanctions against Iran. The Trump administration has been pushing the UN Security Council to impose "snapback" sanctions over what the United States claims are Iran's violations of the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which Britain, France and Germany have been trying to salvage despite America pulling out in 2018. "We are determined to use every tool that we have to ensure they can't get access to high-end weapon systems," Mr Pompeo said. "The rest of the world should join us." As well as visiting the UAE and Bahrain, Mr Pompeo is also due to visit Sudan later this week, where the Arab League's historic 1967 policy of refusing to recognise Israel was originally signed, but which is now considered the next country most likely to normalise relations. "I am hopeful that we will see other Arab nations join in this," Mr Pompeo said on Monday, while publicly reassuring Mr Netanyahu that Israel could maintain its "qualitative military edge" over Arab rivals, despite the prospect of future US arms sales to the UAE. The Palestinian militant group Hamas meanwhile called on regional leaders to reject any ties with Israel and to "break their silence" on the blockade of Gaza, which has intensified in recent weeks after fire bomb and rocket attacks were launched into Israeli territory. The Israeli military said on Monday that fighter jets, tanks and aircraft had struck "military posts and an underground infrastructure" belonging to Hamas in the southern Gaza Strip in response to "arson balloons" launched into Israel the day before, and rocket attacks on Friday.
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| Wife of ex-California congressman sentenced for corruption Posted: 24 Aug 2020 09:57 AM PDT  The wife of former California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter was sentenced Monday in U.S. court to eight months of home confinement after pleading guilty to misusing more than $150,000 in campaign funds in a corruption case that ended her husband's career. Government attorneys noted Margaret Hunter's cooperation with the prosecution of her husband in arguing against putting her behind bars and for allowing her to serve the sentence at home.
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| 10 Best Drones for Kids, According to Engineers Posted: 24 Aug 2020 07:26 AM PDT |
| Iowa State University forced a professor to change his syllabus after he threatened to kick students out of class if they participate in racism, sexism, or homophobia Posted: 24 Aug 2020 12:50 PM PDT  The syllabus said "arguments against gay marriage, abortion, Black Lives Matter" will be "grounds for dismissal from the classroom."
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| Israeli teens find 1,000-year-old gold coins Posted: 24 Aug 2020 07:06 AM PDT  Hundreds of gold coins that are more than 1,000 years old have been unearthed in Israel.
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| The environment law that mobilised two million Indians Posted: 24 Aug 2020 05:12 PM PDT  A proposed environment impact assessment law whips up a firestorm of protest.
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| White House attacks Trump's sister, niece over leaked audio tapes Posted: 23 Aug 2020 07:50 AM PDT  White House chief of staff Mark Meadows sharply criticized President Trump's sister and niece on Sunday, a day after the Washington Post published leaked audio recordings of conversations of the two Trump relatives insulting the president.
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| Fact check: Fake Kamala Harris quote that 'our military are soulless cowards' is from satire site Posted: 24 Aug 2020 02:30 PM PDT  Sen. Harris never called the military "soulless cowards." The statement originated from a satirical site in 2019 and has previously been fact-checked.
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| 'Absolutely repugnant': Biden's campaign forcefully disavows an endorsement from neo-Nazi Richard Spencer Posted: 24 Aug 2020 12:38 PM PDT  A Biden campaign staffer tweeted that what Spencer stands for is "absolutely repugnant," adding, "Your support is 10,000% percent unwelcome here."
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| Police arrest 5 during RNC protests in Charlotte Posted: 23 Aug 2020 10:31 AM PDT  Police have arrested five people in Charlotte, North Carolina, where protesters demonstrated against the Republican National Convention for a second night. The arrests happened late Saturday after a group of demonstrators left a park and began to peacefully march throughout uptown Charlotte, police said in a statement Sunday. Police used pepper spray after a demonstrator picked up a steel pipe that was being used for perimeter security fencing and aggressively approached officers, police said.
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| Hong Kong man becomes first patient to be reinfected with coronavirus, researchers say Posted: 24 Aug 2020 10:03 AM PDT  The finding suggests that some patients who recover from COVID-19 may have only short-lived immunity to reinfection.
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| A 23-year-old Fort Hood soldier who has been missing for a week had reported sexual abuse before his disappearance Posted: 24 Aug 2020 11:28 AM PDT  Sgt. Elder Fernandes, 23, was last seen on August 17 when his staff sergeant dropped him off at his home in Killeen, Texas.
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| Every 4th-grader in Mississippi school district must quarantine amid new COVID-19 cases Posted: 24 Aug 2020 08:25 AM PDT  In all, the district has reported 10 positive cases.
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| Canada demands answers from Iran after Ukraine jet downing report Posted: 24 Aug 2020 03:32 AM PDT  Canada said it was demanding answers from Iran over the mistaken downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet after Tehran's "limited" initial report failed to explain why it fired missiles at the plane.
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| Hannity infuriated colleagues by pre-recording his Fox News show the night Trump was impeached: book Posted: 24 Aug 2020 01:00 PM PDT  "There's no one in the building, except maybe Rupert [Murdoch], who can tell Sean to knock it off"
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| USPS hearing: DeJoy struggles to answer basic questions and defends leadership Posted: 24 Aug 2020 02:56 PM PDT  During House hearing, postmaster general concedes changes he implemented led to delays, but says he will not restore mail boxesUS postmaster general Louis DeJoy struggled to answer basic questions about the price of mail as he continued to defend his leadership at the United States Postal Service (USPS) amid reports of widespread mail delays across the US.Appearing before the House oversight committee on Monday, DeJoy, a major Republican donor who took over as postmaster general in June, again conceded changes he implemented had led to delays, but distanced himself from the decision to remove mail boxes from the street and sorting machines from mail facilities.He declined to say who was responsible for those changes, but reiterated that he will not restore the equipment, even after he announced earlier this month he was pausing changes until after the election."I did not direct the removal of blue collection boxes or mail processing equipment," he said.Representative Carolyn Maloney, the New York Democrat who chairs the committee, pressed DeJoy over newly obtained documents showing declines in mail delivery times since he became the postmaster general. DeJoy did not dispute the decline and conceded that a recent change he implemented to get USPS trucks to run more on schedule had contributed to the delays. The schedules at mail processing plants, DeJoy said, weren't aligning with the on-time truck schedules, leading some mail to be delivered late."While we have had temporary service declines, which should not have happened, we are fixing this," DeJoy said. DeJoy conceded on Monday he was still trying to figure out why the problems had persisted over weeks. DeJoy offered few details on what analyses, if any, USPS had done before implementing the program to try and get trucks to run on time.The postmaster general also reiterated a pledge he made Friday during a US Senate hearing that USPS, the federal agency, has the capacity to deliver mail-in ballots this fall and that delivering them in a timely way was a priority for the agency. But he offered few details on what exactly USPS would do to facilitate timely delivery of ballots in the run-up to the election.In one remarkable exchange with congresswoman Katie Porter, a California Democrat, DeJoy was unable to supply basic information about post office costs. While he correctly told Porter the price of a stamp was 55 cents, he conceded that he did not know the cost of sending a postcard in the US (it costs 35 cents)."I'll submit that I know very little about postage stamps," DeJoy said. He also said he was unaware of how many people voted by mail in the last election, even as he pledged USPS had the capacity to safely deliver ballots. Just over 31 million voters cast ballots by mail in the 2018 midterm election, about a quarter of all ballots cast."I'm glad you know the price of a stamp, but I'm concerned about your understanding of this agency," Porter said. "I'm concerned about it because you started taking very decisive action when you became postmaster general."Nonetheless, Republicans on the committee sought to downplay the delays and offered full-throated support of DeJoy during the hearing. They noted USPS has long suffered from financial woes and portrayed DeJoy as an outsider qualified to overhaul the agency.David Williams, a former member of the USPS board of governors, told House members last week that DeJoy did not appear to be a "serious candidate" for postmaster general when the board interviewed him. He struggled to answer basic questions, Williams said, and another governor had to step in and complete answers for him.Some of the hearing's most tense moments came when Democrats pressed DeJoy about potential conflicts of interest or political interference at the agency. When congressman Jim Cooper, a Democrat from Tennessee, asked DeJoy whether he had provided extra compensation to employees who donated to Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, DeJoy said he had not. "I resent the assertion sir. What are you accusing me of?" he said.Cooper asked DeJoy whether his "backup plan" was to be "pardoned like Roger Stone", referring to the Republican fixer and Trump confidant who had a prison sentence for felonies relating to the Trump-Russia investigation commuted by the president. DeJoy shook his head and said: "I have no comment on that. It's not worth a comment."DeJoy did make some commitments to ensuring ballots cast in the fall would be counted. The agency has long advised states to put ballots in the mail at least a week before election day, but DeJoy said the agency would expedite mail cast closer to election day. There have also been issues with ballots arriving at election offices without postmarks – a crucial feature to determine whether they can be counted – and DeJoy said the agency was going to try and implement a system to postmark as much as possible.Throughout the hearing, DeJoy said that he would not restore hundreds of sorting machines that have reportedly been removed from postal facilities across the country. When Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, asked him why he wouldn't restore the machines if it meant restoring confidence in the election, DeJoy simply said "because they're not needed. That's why."Khanna later got DeJoy to concede that restoring the machines would likely cost less than $1bn. Asked whether the machines could be restored if USPS got an additional $1bn, DeJoy said: "Get me the billion and I'll put the machines in."
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| Soda or 'bottled poison'? Mexico finds a COVID-19 villain in sugary drinks Posted: 24 Aug 2020 09:14 AM PDT  Mexican leaders link rampant soda consumption to COVID-19 deaths, blaming sugar for causing comorbidities such as obesity and diabetes.
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| Police arrest 14 after Portland rocked by clashes between demonstrators Posted: 23 Aug 2020 01:08 AM PDT  Demonstrations against racism and police brutality have swept the United States since the death in May of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Earlier on Saturday there were scuffles in downtown Portland between anti-racism protesters and right-wing demonstrators.
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| California wildfires become a target for looters. A firefighter is among the victims. His wallet was stolen, bank account 'drained.' Posted: 23 Aug 2020 06:25 PM PDT  Official say a California firefighter had his wallet stolen overnight and his bank account was 'drained' while he was fighting wildfires.
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| Weakening Marco makes landfall, as Gulf Coast eyes threat from Laura Posted: 24 Aug 2020 05:28 PM PDT  Ahead of Laura, hurricane and storm surge watches were issued for parts of the Gulf Coast. Marco made landfall but was expected to weaken further.
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| Giuliani: We're headed for a very left administration with Biden Posted: 24 Aug 2020 04:24 AM PDT  Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani weighs in on Biden's agenda, expectations for the RNC.
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| Professor, NASA researcher accused of concealing China ties Posted: 24 Aug 2020 11:00 AM PDT |
| Clinesmith’s Guilty Plea: The Perfect Snapshot of Crossfire Hurricane Duplicity Posted: 24 Aug 2020 03:30 AM PDT  Author's Note: This is the first of a three-part series.To answer the question posed in last Tuesday's column, Yes, Kevin Clinesmith did plead guilty Wednesday. Sort of.Well, maybe it was a smidge better than "sort of." After all, it did happen in a federal-district-court proceeding (via videoconference) on Wednesday. And Judge James Boasberg did accept the plea after eliciting it in accordance with settled criminal-law rules. Sentencing is scheduled for December 10. So it's official.But I'm sticking with "sort of." If Clinesmith's guilty plea is legally adequate, it is barely so. And neither a judge nor a prosecutor is required to accept an allocution sliced so fine. In "admitting" guilt, Clinesmith ended up taking the position that I hoped the judge, and especially the Justice Department, would not abide, in essence: Okay, maybe I committed the crime of making a false statement, but to be clear, I thought the statement was true when I made it, and I certainly never intended to deceive anyone.Huh?I don't mean to make you dizzy, but in my view, Clinesmith is lying about lying. His strategy is worth close study because it encapsulates the mendaciousness and malevolence of both "Crossfire Hurricane" (the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation) and the "collusion" never-enders who continue to defend it. A defendant's lying about lying does not necessarily make a false-statement guilty plea infirm as a matter of law. The bar is not high. Still, his story is ridiculous, in a way that is easy to grasp once it's placed in context.So let's place it in context.'Page Is a Russian Spy' — the FBI Plants Its Feet on a Fantasy Our point of reference is spring 2017.While indignantly denying news stories portraying him as a clandestine agent of Russian, Carter Page asserts that, actually, he's been an informant for a U.S. intelligence agency. FBI officials should know that Page is telling the truth. They have already heard the same thing from the CIA and from Page himself.The CIA told the bureau ten months earlier, in a memo dated August 17, 2016 (i.e., two months before the FBI sought the first FISA warrant against Page). Page had been a CIA source who provided information about Russians. Page told the bureau about at least some of this work during voluntary interviews in 2009 and 2013, during the period when the CIA had authorized Page for "operational contact" with Russians. The FBI, meanwhile, actually used information from Page in a prosecution of Russian spies. (See my 2018 column, discussing of United States v. Buryakov.)And it's not as if the CIA's acknowledgment of Page's informant status was the only exculpatory fact the FBI knew. Not by a long shot. Page was pleading with the FBI director to sit down with the bureau and explain himself, as he had done on other occasions over the years. More to the point, in August 2016 (again, two months before the first FISA warrant to permit spying on Page), Page had credibly insisted to a covert FBI informant, Stefan Halper, that key allegations about Page (derived from the bogus Steele dosser) were false: Page did not even know Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, let alone act as Manafort's intermediary in a Trump–Russia espionage conspiracy; and Page had not recently met in Moscow with Putin-regime heavyweights Igor Sechin and Igor Divyekin.Thus, (a) Page had not done the very things that led the FBI to accuse him of being an active anti-American spy, and (b) Page's prior contacts with Russians, on which the bureau further rationalized its overwrought suspicions, overlapped with Page's years as a CIA operative. Weeks before the FBI and the Obama Justice Department first applied for a FISA warrant on the theory that Page was a spy for the Kremlin, the FBI team conducting the investigation had information showing the theory was untenable.Yet the bureau chose to plant its feet on the daft theory anyway. Apologists for the bureau and the Obama administration would now have you believe that this is because a single one of the FBI's crack counterintelligence agents, Stephen Somma, dropped the ball -- that he alone knew Page was a CIA informant, but held out on his chain-of-command. Really? If they dropped as many balls in Times Square as Somma did -- purportedly without anyone noticing, in one the most significant investigations in the FBI's history -- we'd have New Year's once a week.The fact is, top officials were drinking the "Donald Trump must be colluding with Russia" Kool-Aid, so the story was too good to check. And once the farcical Steele dossier grabbed the investigators' attention in late summer 2016, the bureau was off to the races, framing Page as a key cog in the Trump campaign's "conspiracy of cooperation" with the Kremlin.But that was autumn 2016. Now, remember, we're in late spring of 2017. At this point, the FBI has been monitoring Page for over eight months. The Page-is-a-Russian-spy theory is in tatters. The surveillance turns up nothing. Halper has nothing. Steele's dossier, a shoddy product on its face, is now a hot, steaming mess. Not only is it uncorroborated and unverifiable; Steele himself is dismissing it as "raw" information that needed to be investigated, and his "primary subsource," Igor Danchenko, has discredited it as fiction and rumormongering.But alas, the FBI is dug in. This was not just office banter. The bureau had taken the claim that Page was a spy to court. It was the linchpin of the hypothesis that the Trump campaign was a Kremlin influence operation. This theory, bereft of supporting evidence and resistant to exculpatory evidence, had the imprimatur of FBI headquarters. By June 2017, in conjunction with the Justice Department, the FBI had made this claim under oath to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), three times: a first application in October 2016, and renewal applications in January and April 2017. Each time, based on the FBI's representations, the FISC issued a 90-day surveillance warrant against Page.Disclosure Would Mean Epic Humiliation The warrant issued by the FISC on April 7 was due to expire in early July. By mid June, then, the bureau was well into its preparations to submit yet another renewal application.This is the salient time frame for Clinesmith's case. His defense counsel and apologists would have you look at it as a snapshot. But it wasn't just a moment in time. It was a moment shaped by the preceding ten months, since the "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation (i.e., the Trump-Russia probe) was formally opened on July 31, 2016.By June 2017, it would have occasioned epic humiliation for the FBI to admit that it had on three occasions made false assertions under oath in order to persuade federal judges to issue classified surveillance warrants against an American citizen. Not just humiliation. FBI leadership had publicized the existence of the Trump–Russia probe, consciously promoting the media-Democratic political narrative that the president was beholden to the Kremlin. An admission that court warrants had been sought on false premises would have led to certain administrative discipline and potential criminal inquiries.This was not at the back of the bureau's mind. It was front and center. Just read the FISA warrants. Read the in-the-interest-of-full-disclosure footnotes massaged into gibberish as the case was collapsing. And bear in mind: These laborious rationalizations did not come close to revealing the mounds of exculpatory information that the FBI was withholding.To hear FBI and Justice Department officials tell it, the FISA process is so well designed and diligently executed that, at all times, they are profoundly aware of their heightened duty of candor, of their obligations to submit only verified warrant applications. Of their duty to alert the FISC promptly if they discover that something they've represented to the court is inaccurate. They know, they tell us, about the imperative to be transparent regarding exculpatory information. And even if officials were ever to lose sight of these weighty responsibilities, even for a moment, we're to take comfort that their recollection would quickly be refreshed by the multiple, high-level FBI and DOJ approvals the FISA statute mandates. These have spawned an infrastructure of lawyers, analysts, and verification procedures to ensure that the bosses don't embarrass themselves by signing off on FISA warrant applications that are fraudulent, or at least recklessly irresponsible.That's how it's supposed to work . . . on the drawing board.Down here on Planet Earth, though, in all of government's sprawl, there is no institution more self-conscious about its image, more energetic in promoting its pristine reputation, than the Federal Bureau of Investigation. And thus there is none more resistant to damaging disclosures.At the bureau, officials are keenly aware that, when a misrepresentation is discovered, it is often just the visible part of what, on inspection, turns out to be a train of errors, oversights, poor judgments, and, occasionally, misconduct. The disclosure of a single glaring inaccuracy elucidates that investigators, analysts, or lawyers -- or all of them -- were aware of information that should have set off alarm bells, yet they all turned a deaf ear. Alarm bells, after all, signal underlying misfeasance . . . and sometimes malfeasance. If a judge gets spun up by one embarrassing disclosure, it can soon become two . . . then four . . . And then, next thing you know, a case is unraveling as a scandal unfolds.Clinesmith's Motives Mirror His Superiors' MotivesIn June 2017, on the thin line between business as usual and epic embarrassment, stood Kevin Clinesmith.He was then a 30-something assistant general counsel in the bureau's National Security and Cyber Law Branch. It is part of the FBI's Office of General Counsel (OGC), then led by James Baker.Among the branch's responsibilities, it reviews FISA warrant applications. The Carter Page applications, however, were handled in an unusual way. Details of the applications were scrutinized at the highest levels of the FBI and the Justice Department, to the point that the National Security branch's once-over became superfluous.For example, Trisha Anderson, the OGC's former deputy general counsel, told the House Intelligence Committee in 2018 testimony that, though she normally reviewed FISA warrant applications before they went to the upper ranks for statutorily required sign-offs, she did not do that with the October 2016 Page application. By the time it landed on her desk, it had already been reviewed "line by line" by such superiors as the FBI's then–deputy director Andrew McCabe, as well as by then–deputy attorney general Sally Yates at Main Justice. It had even been perused by Anderson's OGC superior, General Counsel Baker. Baker conceded to the committee that it was unusual for him to review a FISA warrant application, particularly at an early stage, as he did with the Page application.In the chain of command, Clinesmith ranked a few notches lower than Anderson: He reported to the National Security branch chief, who reported to Anderson, after which the chain ascended to Baker, McCabe, and ultimately Director James Comey. That is, Clinesmith was a junior officer -- support personnel. The decision to represent to the FISC that Page was a Russian spy had been made way above his pay grade. The bosses were so invested in it, they were relying on it to investigate the sitting president of the United States. And just a few weeks earlier, when the president fired Comey in May 2017, a special counsel had been appointed to take over the investigation. The Mueller team's mandate from the deputy attorney general was to get to the bottom of links between the Russian regime and former Trump-campaign advisers, such as Page.This was not a train Clinesmith could have started or stopped on his own. Nevertheless, he was all in.We learn from the Inspector General's report on the FBI's FISA abuse that, from the very beginning, Clinesmith was in on OGC deliberations about seeking FISA surveillance of Page. Even before September 2016, when he first learned about Steele's reporting, he told the IG he believed that there was a "50/50" chance of establishing probable cause that Page was a clandestine agent for Russia. For that assessment, he relied on "Page's historical contacts with Russian intelligence officers." At that point, he says he did not know that the CIA had told the FBI that Page was a CIA informant when these contacts took place. So, when the first FISA warrant was sought in October 2016 (and the second in January, and the third in April), he agreed that the probable-cause standard was easily satisfied by these contacts, weighed in combination with Steele's (uncorroborated) claims about Page, as well as Page's statements to Halper (as bowdlerized by the bureau).Echoing his bosses, then, Clinesmith adopted the "Page is a Russian spy" fantasy from the get-go. If subsequent developments ever called for scrutinizing the kamikaze portrayal of Page as a spy, Clinesmith was sure to be on the hook. And while the higher-ups would take most of the heat if the bureau proved to be embarrassingly wrong, it is always the underlings like Clinesmith who get hung out to dry for misinforming their superiors. That is how Washington works. Clinesmith, a Washington creature, realized this only too well.'The Predication of Our Entire Investigation' Is at RiskOf course, Clinesmith was not putting himself personally on the line with the FISC. That was to be the responsibility of the affiant, the FBI agent assigned to swear to the truth of the warrant application. This difference in the duties of that agent and Clinesmith, along with an obvious integrity disparity, explains the very different way they approached the matter.This affiant-agent is identified only as "SSA" in the criminal information filed against Clinesmith. (This affiant-agent is "SSA 2" in the IG report, one of several unidentified "supervisory special agents" who appear therein). Though nominally a supervising agent, the SSA operated at some remove from the rubber-meets-the-road investigating. In the bureau, the agent who signs a FISA warrant is not the supervisor of agents investigating the case; he is a headquarters "program manager." Furthermore, the SSA was not assigned to Crossfire Hurricane until late December 2016. That is, he was not involved in the initial deliberations over whether Page was a Russian spy and whether to seek FISA surveillance on that theory.Having inherited sign-off responsibility in an ongoing surveillance that his superiors had already green-lighted, the SSA went with the flow, at least at the beginning. The IG report indicates that, in signing the first and second renewal applications (in January and April 2017), the SSA performed only a cursory review of the file. He assumed that other agents had done their work properly.It was only in June 2017, as the third renewal application was being prepared, that he became concerned. It was around that time that the SSA heard about Page's vehement public denials that he was a Russian spy and claims that he had engaged Russians on behalf of an American intelligence service. It dawned on the SSA that he would be expected to swear, under penalty of perjury, that he believed there was probable cause to conclude that Page was a clandestine agent of Russia, working against the United States. Page's public protestations gave him pause. They also created a potentially catastrophic problem for the bureau, which the SSA later summarized for the IG (I'd italicize -- but I'd have to italicize every word):> [If Page] was being tasked by another agency, especially if he was being tasked to engage Russians, then it would absolutely be relevant for the Court to know . . . [and] could also seriously impact the predication of our entire investigation, which focused on [Page's] close and continuous contact with Russian/Russia-linked individuals.If Page had been a CIA operative during meetings with Russians — meetings that the FBI had sworn to the court showed Page was a traitorous spy — then the FBI would have some serious explaining to do. And if it turned out that, before applying under oath for the warrants, the FBI had been informed by the CIA that Page was a CIA operative, then the FBI would be humiliated.Bear in mind: The incumbent Democratic administration had opened an election-year investigation of its Republican opposition, and the FBI had heavily relied on bogus evidence generated by the Democratic campaign to claim that Page was a spy for Russia. With that as background, there would be only two possible explanations for the FBI's failure to inform the court that Page was working for the CIA when the bureau had claimed he was working for the Kremlin: willful abuse of power or monstrous incompetence.End of Part 1.
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| Texas Republicans deny its new party slogan 'We Are The Storm' is inspired by the far-right QAnon movement Posted: 23 Aug 2020 09:50 AM PDT  Concerns are growing about the influence of the conspiracy movement in Trump's GOP, but the Texas branch claims its new slogan has innocent origins.
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| Stolen branch on Yellowstone visitor’s SUV leads ranger to more illegal cargo, feds say Posted: 24 Aug 2020 04:10 PM PDT  The driver had already visited multiple national parks in several states, court documents said.
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| Libya strongman labels GNA ceasefire announcement a stunt Posted: 24 Aug 2020 04:26 AM PDT  A spokesman for eastern Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar has slammed a ceasefire announcement by the rival Government of National Accord (GNA) as a media stunt, accusing it of preparing a new offensive.
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| Long delays at U.S.-Mexico border crossings after new travel restrictions Posted: 24 Aug 2020 02:12 PM PDT  Americans who regularly cross the border from Mexico reported long wait times to re-enter the United States on Monday after U.S. officials imposed new COVID-19-related restrictions on cross-border travel by U.S. citizens and permanent residents. The U.S. government closed lanes at select ports of entry on the border and began conducting more secondary checks to limit non-essential travel and slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said on Friday. According to CBP data, wait times at some border crossings have since doubled or tripled.
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| Revved by Sturgis Rally, COVID-19 infections move fast, far Posted: 24 Aug 2020 02:30 PM PDT  The hundreds of thousands of bikers who attended the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally may have departed western South Dakota, but public health departments in multiple states are trying to measure how much and how quickly the coronavirus spread in bars, tattoo shops and gatherings before people traveled home to nearly every state in the country. From the city of Sturgis, which is conducting mass testing for its roughly 7,000 residents, to health departments in at least six states, health officials are trying to track outbreaks from the 10-day rally which ended on Aug. 16. An analysis of anonymous cell phone data from Camber Systems, a firm that aggregates cell phone activity for health researchers, found that 61% of all the counties in the U.S. have been visited by someone who attended Sturgis, creating a travel hub that was comparable to a major U.S. city.
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| New Jersey family fighting for return of fisherman jailed in British Virgin Islands Posted: 24 Aug 2020 05:15 PM PDT  Stafford fisherman Michael Foy is jailed in the British Virgin Islands. His family is fighting to free him.
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| Jared Kushner made a deal with Russia for ventilators during the COVID-19 crisis, but every single machine was faulty, report says Posted: 24 Aug 2020 04:11 AM PDT  Senior Trump administration officials told the Daily Beast that Jared Kushner was behind an order from Russia that was ultimately unusable.
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| Jeremy Corbyn failed to empathise with British Jews because they are 'prosperous' Posted: 24 Aug 2020 10:22 AM PDT  Jeremy Corbyn failed to empathise with British Jews because they are "prosperous", a former ally has said in a new anti-Semitism row. Andrew Murray, who was a senior adviser to the former Labour leader, insisted Mr Corbyn was "empathetic", but with those in society who are "at the bottom of the heap". According to the new book Left Out: The Inside Story of Labour under Corbyn, Mr Murray said: "He is very empathetic, Jeremy, but he's empathetic with the poor, the disadvantaged, the migrant, the marginalised, the people at the bottom of the heap."
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| For mail carriers, neighborhoods and my family, the US Postal Service is personal. Posted: 24 Aug 2020 01:28 PM PDT  In communities across America, the U.S. Postal Service wins the trust of neighbors on the ground, person to person.
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| Man who believed virus was hoax loses wife to Covid-19 Posted: 24 Aug 2020 10:10 AM PDT  A couple from Florida did not follow health guidelines after believing lies about the virus online.
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| Driver Pulled from Truck, Beaten by Black Lives Matter Crowd in Portland Speaks Out Posted: 24 Aug 2020 07:46 AM PDT  Adam Haner, the driver who was dragged from his pick-up truck and beaten by rioters in Portland last week, is questioning the motives of protestors, saying "they're exhibiting the same behavior that they're trying to stop."Haner's comments came during a Saturday appearance on Fox News' "Watters World" during which he explained that he and his girlfriend, Tammie Martin, had been attempting to aid a woman they saw being robbed when the attack occurred. His good deed left him with black eyes, head lacerations and injuries to his ribs and legs last Sunday. A crowd of Black Lives Matter and Antifia rioters surrounded Haner's truck around 10:30 p.m. after he crashed into a light pole at Southwest Broadway and Taylor Street. At least one individual punched him as he sat inside before he was pulled out of the vehicle and attacked."I warned everyone to get out of my way when I did start my truck," Haner said. "I'd been down there long enough. They knew when my truck started, to get out of the way. I was down there for a lengthy amount of time. I managed not to hurt anyone while I was down there, but myself, evidently. I can't say the same for them."Haner called out Democratic mayor Ted Wheeler, who has given into protestors' demands to defund the police, for the police's slow response time. He said it took 10 minutes for help to arrive, "kind of a long response time for my issue down there." Police had deployed a large law enforcement response and encountered "a hostile crowd," at the scene, the department said earlier. Haner then took aim at the rioters, saying, "I thought that's what they were down there trying to fight, was this kind of behavior toward them, but they're exhibiting the same behavior that they're trying to stop."He was attacked by a mob of rioters, but the man who allegedly delivered a final crushing kick to Haner, 25-year-old Marquise Love, was arrested Friday and charged with felonious assault, riot participation, and coercion. A video appears to show Love punching Haner several times before kicking his head from behind, knocking him out and causing his head to bleed after it hit the street.Haner's attack is the latest in a series of violent demonstrations that have plagued the city and led to the deployment of federal agents — who have since been withdrawn — following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody earlier this summer.
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| US blasts WTO ruling in decades-old Canada lumber dispute Posted: 24 Aug 2020 09:34 AM PDT  The United States slammed a World Trade Organization ruling Monday that favored Canada in a longstanding battle over lumber imports, holding the case up as further justification for Washington's campaign to drastically reform the global trade body.
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| 4 more shootings overnight amid deadly weekend in New York City Posted: 23 Aug 2020 03:55 AM PDT  Gun violence continues to plague New York City following 14 different shootings since Saturday, including one that killed a young mother.
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| Ex Miami lawmaker hired by Venezuela elected to GOP board Posted: 24 Aug 2020 12:19 PM PDT  Democrats are sharpening attacks on a former congressman who was quietly elected to the Miami GOP's executive committee despite a federal investigation into a $50 million lobbying contract with a favorite Republican target in South Florida: Venezuela's socialist government. David Rivera's election to the 160-member committee, which has not been previously reported, was largely overlooked amid the results of Miami's Aug. 18 primaries. Rivera, who lost his reelection attempt in 2012 but retains strong name recognition, won 35% of the ballots cast by Republicans in the 23rd District of Miami-Dade County.
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| Fact check: Over 8,000 US trafficking arrests since 2017 have not included members of Congress Posted: 24 Aug 2020 12:54 PM PDT  Claims online of 3,100 arrests for human trafficking in the U.S. since 2017, including 38 members of Congress, are false.
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| UPS driver randomly shot at vehicles along interstate in Oregon, police say Posted: 24 Aug 2020 08:00 AM PDT  The man is being held on $1 million bail.
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| 56 people got the coronavirus at a Starbucks in South Korea. The only people who didn’t were employees wearing masks. Posted: 24 Aug 2020 09:06 AM PDT  A Starbucks in South Korea has reported a coronavirus outbreak after an infected person sat near an air conditioner. Employees wearing masks were safe
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| The lights went out. Now California might let these gas plants stay open Posted: 24 Aug 2020 05:30 AM PDT  The gas plant vote Tuesday is the first major energy decision for Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration following this month's blackouts.
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| Belarus sees mass protests as Alexander Lukashenko orders army to defend nation Posted: 23 Aug 2020 03:33 AM PDT  The streets of the Belarusian capital Minsk on Sunday erupted with roar and chants of "Go away!" as at least 100,000 opposition protesters filled the city's main streets, demanding the resignation of the country's embattled leader who had vowed to crack down on protests. The massive rally comes two weeks after Alexander Lukashenko, who has led Belarus for 26 years, was awarded a largely disputed landslide victory in the presidential election. Ensuing protests were met with unprecedented violence by riot police who fired rubber bullets at unarmed protesters, threw stun grenades and chased passers-by in remote residential neighbourhoods. It came as Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, called for a "dialogue with the population" and stressed that it was up to "the Belarusian people to decide how it can solve this situation." At least 7,000 were swept up in the police crackdown, and many victims testified about beatings and torture.
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