Posts made by Drwas

FAKE NEWS!  :crazy2:

Frederick only reads the headlines!  :crazy2:

@amicusets:

He is also a Democrat that was a Bernie or Buster.

LOL. No.

The Russian banker Jared Kushner met with in December has been described by U.S. intelligence officials as a “Putin crony,” according to a report for NBC News.

NBC News reports Sergey Gorkov graduated from FSB Academy, which officials describe as a “finishing school” for spies, in 1994.

Officials say Gorkov often performed sensitive financial operations for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

NBC News and the Washington Post reported this week that the president’s son in law is under scrutiny in the federal investigation into potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russian election meddling. This does not mean that Kushner is suspected of a crime.

Investigators are looking into Kushner's meeting with Gorkov last December as well as a meeting with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Putin appointed Gorkov to run VneshEconomBank (VEB), which is a state-run bank that has worked against the effects of U.S. sanctions by finding other sources of foreign capitol.

The White House and VEB confirmed told NBC News that Kushner and Gorkov met at a roadshow in December, but did not provide details on the location or the specific date.

The news comes a day after The Washington Post reported that Kushner may have discussed creating a secret communications channel with the Trump transition team and the Kremlin.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/335410-russian-banker-kushner-met-with-considered-putin-crony-by-us-intel

The man accused of the brutal hate crime slayings of two people at the Hollywood Transit Center on Friday afternoon is a known local white supremacist.

Jeremy Christian, 35, was booked early Saturday morning on two aggravated murder charges, an attempted murder charge, two intimidation (hate crime) charges, and a felon in possession of a restricted weapon charge.

The Portland Police Bureau (PPB) reported that the man "was on the MAX train yelling various remarks that would be best characterized as hate speech toward a variety of ethnicities and religions. At least two of the victims attempted to intervene with the suspect and calm him down. The suspect attacked the men, stabbing three, before leaving the train."

Witnesses told the police that he was harassing two women who appear to be Muslim. One was described as wearing a hijab. One of the men he stabbed died at the scene, one was pronounced dead at a hospital, and one is expected to survive.

Christian is a known right wing extremist and white supremacist. On April 29, Christian showed up to the right-wing "March for Free Speech" on 82nd Avenue in Montavilla with a baseball bat in an attempt to assault left-wing protesters. The bat was quickly confiscated by Portland police officers. He ranted how he was a nihilist. He'd soon yelled racial slurs ("fuck all you n*****s") and gave the Nazi salute throughout the day. He yelled "Hail Vinland" throughout the day.

http://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2017/05/27/19041594/suspect-in-portland-hate-crime-murders-is-a-known-white-supremacist

"GOOD GRIEF. This is serious," said Bob Deitz, a veteran of the NSA and the CIA who worked under the Clinton and Bush administrations.

"This raises a bunch of problematic issues. First, of course, is the Logan Act, which prohibits private individuals conducting negotiations on behalf of the US government with foreign governments," Deitz said. "Second, it tends to reinforce the notion that Trump's various actions about [fired FBI Director James] Comey do constitute obstruction."

"In other words, there is now motive added to conduct," Deitz noted. "This is a big problem for the President."

http://www.businessinsider.com/jared-kushner-wanted-secret-talks-russia-trump-2017-5

UPDATE, 8:20 pm: At a press conference, Portland Police Bureau spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson confirmed eyewitness reports that the man was verbally abusing two women, one in a hijab.

Simpson said that screed was part of a larger, unfocused rant and erratic behavior.

"It's horrific," Simpson said. "There's no other way to describe it."

UPDATE, 8:45 pm: The Portland Police Bureau has issued an official statement on the double slaying. It says the man who committed the attacks was "yelling various remarks that would best be characterized as hate speech toward a variety of ethnicities and religions."

It also says police are still looking for the two young women, who may have been targets of the verbal abuse…

The The Council on American-Islamic Relations, based in Washington, D.C., tonight decried the killings and asked President Donald Trump "to speak out personally against rising bigotry and acts of racial violence in America targeting Muslims and other minority groups."

A Russian oligarch who secretly employed Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, offered to testify before congressional committees investigating Russia’s meddling in the U.S. election, but only if he’s granted immunity from prosecution, The New York Times reported Friday.

Lawmakers have so far turned down the demands of aluminum billionaire Oleg Deripaska, lest an immunity deal compromise criminal investigations into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to influence the election, according to the Times. Manafort is said to be a key figure in the FBI’s investigation.

Deripaska and Manafort worked together on an offshore fund in 2007 that quickly folded. But Deripaska also provided a $10 million annual contract to Manafort beginning in 2006 to promote Russian interests abroad, The Associated Press reported in March.  During the time of the contract, Manafort was working as a campaign consultant to candidates in the Ukraine backed by the Kremlin.

Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s adviser and son-in-law, reportedly discussed opening a secret communication channel between the administration’s transition team and the Russian government, The Washington Post reported Friday.

According to the report, Kushner discussed that possibility with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, in December, before Trump’s inauguration. Specifically, Kushner reportedly asked about using Russia’s diplomatic facilities to secure the channel to avoid being monitored.

That suggestion surprised Kislyak, who is widely believed to be involved with Russia’s spying operations, according to the Post:

Kislyak reportedly was taken aback by the suggestion of allowing an American to use Russian communications gear at its embassy or consulate — a proposal that would have carried security risks for Moscow as well as the Trump team.

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was fired in February after he discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with Kislyak and then lied about it, also attended the meeting, as was reported in March.

The White House didn’t immediately return a request for comment on the Post’s report.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russian-ambassador-told-moscow-that-kushner-wanted-secret-communications-channel-with-kremlin/2017/05/26/520a14b4-422d-11e7-9869-bac8b446820a_story.html?tid=sm_tw&utm_campaign=pubexchange_article&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=huffingtonpost.com&utm_term=.13e0071810d3

LOL. You really do live in a alternate reality.

(Reuters) - Two men were stabbed to death in the U.S. city of Portland on Friday when they tried to stop their attacker from harassing two women because they appeared to be Muslim, police said.

The incident unfolded on a commuter train hours before the start of Ramadan, Islam’s holy month, when most of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims observe a religious fast.

The attack began shortly before 4:30 p.m. when a man started yelling ethnic and religious slurs toward two women who appeared to be Muslim on a MAX train at the Hollywood Transit Station, the Portland Police Department said in a statement.

Three men who intervened were stabbed, two fatally. The attacker was arrested shortly after he got off the train, police said, adding that the women left the scene before police could interview them.

Lock Him Up!

The U.S. intelligence community has long since concluded Russia meddled in the 2016 election, and it was reported shortly after the 2016 presidential election that a GOP superPAC linked to Paul Ryan used illegally hacked material to attack Democratic House candidates. But a bombshell report published on Thursday confirms that Republican political operatives were working with the Russian government to hurt Hillary Clinton and Democrats during the election — the first direct evidence of so-called collusion.

The Wall Street Journal reported that hacked information was posted on a blog run by Aaron Nevins, the political operative, and then passed along to top Trump adviser Roger Stone during the campaign. The Republican operative in Florida received a trove of Democratic documents from the allegedly Kremlin-linked hacker, Guccifer 2.0. For months, both Congress and the FBI have been scrutinizing evidence that associates of Trump may have colluded with Russia during the campaign.

Nevins confirmed to the Journal that he told hacker Guccifer 2.0 to “feel free to send any Florida based information” after learning that the hacker had tapped into Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) computers last summer. From the DCCC, Guccifer 2.0 released internal assessments of Democratic congressional candidates, known as “self-opposition research,” to GOP operatives using social media. Nevins told the Journal that, after receiving the stolen documents from the hacker, he “realized it was a lot more than even Guccifer knew that he had.” The stolen DCCC documents also contained sensitive information on voters in key Florida districts, breaking down how many people were considered dependable Democratic voters, undecided Democrats, Republican voters and the like. Nevins made a war analogy, describing the data he received to Guccifer 2.0 as akin to a “map to where all the troops are deployed.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-alleged-russian-hacker-teamed-up-with-florida-gop-operative-1495724787

Former House Speaker John Boehner said earlier this week that Donald Trump’s presidency so far has been “a complete disaster” and that the billionaire-turned commander in chief is still learning the job.

“Everything else he’s done [in office] has been a complete disaster,” Boehner said during a question-and-answer session at a conference in Houston on Wednesday. “He’s still learning how to be president.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/26/john-boehner-trump-disaster-238862

“To many observers on the left, the initial embrace of Seth Rich conspiracy theories by conservative media figures was merely a confirmation of the right’s deformed soul. But for those of us who remember that Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity were once relatively mainstream Reaganites, their extended vacation in the fever swamps is even more disturbing. If once you knew better, the indictment is deeper.

The cruel exploitation of the memory of Rich, a Democratic National Committee staffer who was shot dead last summer, was horrifying and clarifying. The Hannity right, without evidence, accused Rich rather than the Russians of leaking damaging DNC emails. In doing so, it has proved its willingness to credit anything — no matter how obviously deceptive or toxic — to defend President Trump and harm his opponents. Even if it means becoming a megaphone for Russian influence.

The basic, human questions are simple. How could conservative media figures not have felt — felt in their hearts and bones — the God-awful ickiness of it? How did the genes of generosity and simple humanity get turned off? Is this insensibility the risk of prolonged exposure to our radioactive political culture? If so, all of us should stand back a moment and tend to the health of our revulsion.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-conservative-mind-has-become-diseased/2017/05/25/523f0964-4159-11e7-9869-bac8b446820a_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-d%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.8e0637a49f6d

Sheriff David Clarke of Milwaukee County, Wis., reportedly directed some of his officers to hassle a man at an airport after Clarke and the man had a brief verbal exchange, according to a new report.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Clarke and the man, 24-year-old Dan Black, had a brief verbal exchange aboard an American Airlines flight in January. Clarke claims that Black asked him if he was Sheriff Clarke.

Clarke’s claims come as a response to a lawsuit filed by Black against Clarke, Milwaukee County and several unnamed deputies, according to the Journal Sentinel.

After Black and Clarke’s exchange, Clarke sent a text message to Captain Mark Witek telling Witek what to do with Black.

“Just a field interview, no arrest unless he becomes an asshole with your guys,” Clarke wrote. “Follow him to baggage and out the door.”

“Question for him is, why he said anything to me,” Clarke continued. “Why didn’t he just keep his mouth shut?”

Black says he was detained, interviewed and escorted out of the Milwaukee airport by six deputies after the incident, according to the report.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/335275-sheriff-david-clarke-directed-officers-to-hassle-man-after

President Trump on Friday wished Muslims a "joyful Ramadan" in a statement, talking up the fight against terrorism and avoiding his campaign rhetoric on Islam.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/335305-trump-wishes-muslims-a-joyful-ramadan

American voters disagree with President Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey, think the dismissal was for self-serving reasons, and approve of a special counsel being appointed to investigate Russian government efforts to influence the election and the Trump campaign. In addition, a majority opposes the Republican plan to replace Obamacare. That’s according to a new Fox News Poll of registered voters nationwide.

The last month took a toll on the president’s ratings. The poll finds 40 percent of voters approve of the job Trump is doing, down from 45 percent last month. Disapproval is up 5 points to 53 percent. Some of the drop in approval comes from Republicans, as just 81 percent approve of the president. GOP approval had been between 84-87 percent during Trump’s first three months in office.

Plus, his approval among whites without a college degree went from 62 percent last month to 53 percent now. Working-class whites were a key voting bloc for him in the election (66 percent backed Trump according to the Fox News Exit Poll). Among independents, approval fell to 34 percent. It was 42 percent in April. Forty-six percent voted for Trump.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/05/24/fox-news-poll-trump-approval-down-voters-support-special-counsel-on-russia.html

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is again under fire for concealing his contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. The former Alabama senator failed to disclose at least two occasions in which he met with high-ranking Russian officials when he applied for his security clearance, according to a CNN report.

In March, Sessions was harshly criticized for claiming during his Senate confirmation hearing that he had had no communication with Russia despite those interactions with Kislyak. Although he recused himself from the FBI’s investigation into Russia as a result of this story, he insisted that “I never had meetings with Russian operatives or Russian intermediaries about the Trump campaign.”

Ian Prior, a Justice Department spokesman, defended Sessions’ omission from his security clearance forms in a statement reported by The New York Times.

“As a United States senator, the attorney general met hundreds — if not thousands — of foreign dignitaries and their staff. The attorney general’s staff consulted with those familiar with the process, as well as the F.B.I. investigator handling the background check, and was instructed not to list meetings with foreign dignitaries and their staff connected with his Senate activities,” Prior said.

Mark Zaid, a Washington attorney who focuses on national security law, told CNN that “a member of Congress would still have to reveal the appropriate foreign government contacts notwithstanding it was on official business.”

Indeed, as CNN points out, the form that Sessions filled out specifically instructed him to list “any contact” that he or members of his family had had with either a “foreign government” or its “representatives” within the previous seven years.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/24/us/politics/jeff-sessions-russia.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur
http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/24/politics/jeff-sessions-russian-officials-meetings/index.html

Donald Trump disclosure of top secret Israeli intelligence to top Russian officials during a meeting in the Oval Office is not without repercussions. On Wednesday, Israeli Defense chief Avigdor Lieberman said his country tweaked its intelligence-sharing protocols with the United States after Trump’s off-script remarks.

“I can confirm that we did a spot repair and that there’s unprecedented intelligence cooperation with the United States,” Lieberman told Army Radio. “What we had to clarify with our friends in the United States, we did. We did our checks,” he added.

Lieberman didn’t clarify how or to what extent Israel changed how it shares intelligence with the United States. But the comments indicate Israel’s displeasure at Trump’s inadvertent leaks. “Not everything needs to be discussed in the media; some things need to be talked about in closed rooms,” he said.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/05/24/israel-changed-intelligence-sharing-with-u-s-after-trump-comments-to-russians/