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Dept. of I Really Don't Care, Do U? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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#247

File under #MessagingUndergroundLine2Hannity

Hannity still denies talking to Pompeo about Ukraine

Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale 's deposition – released on Monday night – corroborated the earlier claims about a phone call to Sean Hannity regarding Hannity’s promotion of “the narrative” about US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. “It did come up at some point with the secretary,” meaning Secretary of State Mike Pompeo , Hale said. “I understood that he did call Sean Hannity.”

But Hannity repeated his denial on Monday night. “How many times do I have to say? We barely mentioned this woman,” he said on the air, referring to Yovanovitch. “No,” he said, “I never got a call from Secretary Pompeo or anything else. Why would they lie about this?” Good question…

https://mailchi.mp/cnn/rs-nov-18-2019?e=f4e082627b

From Brian Stelter - CNN

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#248


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#249

WTF?
https://twitter.com/tizzywoman/status/1196890783728783361

Ohio’s proposed abortion ban would require doctors to reimplant ectopic pregnancies, but that’s not possible

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#250

True that.

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#251

https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1196931557962997761?s=20

:cow::cow2::cow::cow2::cow::cow2::cow::cow2:

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#252

The US economy is losing billions of dollars because foreign students aren’t enrolling

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#253

More grift…always part of the power grab. Make 'em pay me.

The U.S. Secret Service paid more than $250,000 to President Trump’s private businesses in just the first five months of his presidency — paying Trump’s company an average of nearly $2,000 per day, according to Secret Service records.

Those records, obtained by the group Property of the People after an open-records lawsuit, detail some of the revenue that Trump derives from U.S. taxpayers.

The president has set up an extraordinary arrangement: He kept ownership of his businesses — and then visited them repeatedly, bringing along aides and security officials and charging the government for what they bought.

Documents released previously had shown $84,000 in federal spending at Trump properties in the first months of Trump’s time in office. These new records, detailing spending on Secret Service credit cards, show another $254,000 by the Secret Service alone.

…

The records do not show what the Secret Service payments are for.

But Secret Service agents often spend multiple days securing a property and planning on-site before a president’s arrival, even if it isn’t the president’s first time going there. It’s unclear how the Secret Service would do that at Trump properties where there are little or no overnight accommodations, including the Virginia golf course.

Some expenditures do not seem to correlate to Trump’s public schedule.

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#254

grrrrrrrr

From Crooked Media
The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced judicial nominee Lawrence VanDyke , whom the American Bar Association rated “not qualified.” Cool cool cool cool cool.

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#255

A post was merged into an existing topic: Mentionable News

#256

:slightly_frowning_face:

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#257

More blackmail from Trump.

How a Facebook Employee Helped Trump Win—But Switched Sides for 2020

James Barnes is now focused on using digital-ad strategies to try to get Trump out of office


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#258

Do note: if Giuliani actually had such evidence, it would surely be released already.

Giuliani Says Biden Documents to Be Released ‘If I Disappear’

Rudy Giuliani, a focus of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump’s foreign policy dealings in Ukraine, suggested on Twitter that he has dirt on the Biden family that would be released were he to get into trouble.

Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, also described as “sarcastic” a statement he made recently about having “an insurance policy” should he fall out of favor with the president.

That followed an interview with Fox News during which he was asked whether Trump might soon conclude that Giuliani is a liability, and throw him “under the bus.”

“This is ridiculous,” Giuliani, 75, said. “We are very good friends. He knows what I did was in order to defend him, not to dig up dirt on Biden.”

Without offering proof, Giuliani tweeted that he had “files in my safe about the Biden Family’s 4 decade monetizing” of the former vice president and senator’s office. “If I disappear, it will immediately appear.”

Giuliani’s tweet also referred to his “RICO chart.” Mentioning the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, the federal law aimed at prosecuting organized crime, may imply Giuliani still has information that’s not been released publicly from his days as a U.S. Attorney.

Also on Saturday Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor, said on Twitter that “the Mafia couldn’t kill me so NO, I am not worried about the swamp press.”

It was a busy day on social media for the former New York City mayor, who’s said to be under investigation for possible campaign finance violations and a failure to register as a foreign agent. He said, again without elaborating, that he “plans to bring out a massive pay-for-play scheme under the Obama administration that will devastate the Democrat Party.”

During two weeks of impeachment hearings Giuliani was mentioned multiple times by State Department officials testifying on whether Trump improperly withheld military aid to Ukraine. Two of Giuliani’s associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were charged in October in a campaign finance scheme.

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#259

I didn’t realize the WH would ‘officially’ stoop to this.

See graphic

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#260

They’ve been posting WaPo reviews of Schiff if they can be used against him, including variations of that graphic. And the WH account is pretty much Team Trump now and has posted far worse, sadly.

Looking at the article, the WH is also, of course, cherrypicking and misrepresenting the full article:

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#261

Natch…

And keeping the ???'s coming…which is the end game.

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#262

AXIOS Scoop: White House directed block of Armenian genocide resolution

Many were perplexed and outraged when, right after clashing with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a heated Oval Office meeting on Nov. 13, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham hurried back to the Senate floor and did something that likely delighted Erdoğan. Graham blocked a resolution that would have formally recognized Turkey’s genocide of the Armenian people.

Behind the scenes: Graham had just scolded Erdoğan over his invasion of Syria and attacks on the Kurds, according to sources in the room.

  • As we reported at the time, Erdogan pulled out his iPad and showed the Oval Office group a propaganda video depicting the leader of the primarily Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces as a terrorist.
  • The South Carolina Republican then chided him over the clip. “Well, do you want me to go get the Kurds to make one about what you’ve done?” he said.

What happened next, which has not been previously reported: As Graham was leaving the Oval Office, senior White House staff asked him to return to the Senate and block the Armenian genocide resolution — a measure that would have infuriated Erdoğan.

  • Graham confirmed this in a phone interview on Saturday.
  • “After the meeting, we kind of huddled up and talked about what happened,” he said. A White House legislative affairs official told Graham that Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) was going to bring up his Armenian genocide resolution and asked if Graham could “please object.”
  • “I said sure,” Graham said. “The only reason I did it is because he [Erdoğan] was still in town. … That would’ve been poor timing. I’m trying to salvage the relationship if possible.”

Asked whether he felt uncomfortable blocking the Armenian genocide resolution, Graham replied: “Yeah. Because I like Bob [Menendez]. He’s been working on this for years, but I did think with the president of Turkey in town that was probably more than the market would bear.”

  • “I’m not going to object next time,” Graham added.

The “next time” happened last week. Menendez and his Republican Senate colleague Ted Cruz introduced the Armenian genocide resolution again. This time, the White House asked another Republican Senate ally, David Perdue, to block it.

  • “Senator Perdue objected due to concerns that passage of the resolution would jeopardize the sensitive negotiations going on in the region with Turkey and other allies,” said a Perdue spokesperson.

The big picture: The Trump administration is pushing Turkey to give up its Russian-made S-400 air defense system. While they’re negotiating, they’re trying to block Congress from calling out Turkey’s human rights atrocities.

  • Trump has also been reluctant to sign legislation — which Congress passed with overwhelming bipartisan majorities — to punish China for its repression of Hong Kong. Trump tells aides he wants to get a trade deal first.
  • But Trump will probably have no choice but to sign the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. As Sen. Cruz said, Congress has enough votes to override a presidential veto.
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#263

Shows how money does open doors, and Ambassadorships. But hey, Sondland had been critical of T before and pulled out of a fundraiser Sondland was going to host. But turns things around by his $1 million dollar donation to T’s inauguration.

Such an eye-opener…

1 big thing: Inside Sondland’s pay-to-play power grab

When Gordon Sondland arrived at the Trump fundraising breakfast at Manhattan’s Cipriani restaurant on Dec. 7, 2016, he had trouble getting in. Sondland hadn’t sent his RSVP, he hadn’t sent any money and the Secret Service had not cleared him to enter.

  • Trump transition team officials had no affection for the hotelier.
  • The last time Sondland had been on the campaign’s radar was when, through a spokesperson, he publicly denounced Trump’s character and canceled a fundraiser he was scheduled to co-host.
  • That was August 2016, after Trump lambasted Gold Star father Khizr Khan. Key officials noted Sondland’s denunciation, and they hadn’t let it go.

Behind the scenes: Sondland had another problem that December morning. He was ready to spend big to get back into Trump’s good graces and had brought with him checks totaling $1 million, made out from multiple LLCs. But donors at this breakfast were legally only allowed to give a maximum of $5,000 each.

  • Sondland’s million-dollar contribution was made out to the Trump Inauguration, so the transition team — a legally separate entity, which was running the Cipriani breakfast — couldn’t take it.
  • Trump mockingly (and accurately) captured the motives of many in his audience that day — roughly 1,000 D.C. lobbyists and businesspeople eager to get back into Trump’s good graces — when he said in his speech, per two sources present, that most of them hadn’t supported him in the campaign but had no choice now.
  • “They said Never Trump, now they’re Only Trump,” said Trump, according to a recording of part of the remarks obtained by Politico.

Sondland, blocked from entering the breakfast, called Eli Miller, who had worked as a Trump campaign fundraiser and would go on to become chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.

  • Miller, who wore the lapel pin that tells the Secret Service he’s safe to pass through security, came out to fetch Sondland and ushered him into the breakfast, according to sources present.

The big picture: After contributing $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee, Sondland was still so alienated from key Republican officials that it took him more than a year to achieve his goal of becoming an ambassador.

  • A source familiar with the matter said Sondland’s name was not on a list of potential ambassadors that circulated in early 2017 because of the negative comments he’d made about Trump.
  • Mnuchin, Trump’s first White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and others in the White House were involved in approving that list.
  • Priebus had no interest in helping Sondland. Nor did Republican National Committee chairperson Ronna Romney McDaniel, according to sources with direct knowledge.

For the next year, Sondland kept pushing. He rounded up prominent Republicans outside the White House and pressed administration officials to advocate for him. He eventually was entered into consideration for a diplomatic post.

  • As a result of Sondland’s persistent lobbying effort, Mnuchin’s office suggested his nomination be dealt with once and for all, per sources with direct knowledge. In May 2018, Trump finally nominated Sondland and the Senate confirmed him as EU ambassador the next month.

Sondland’s attorney, Robert Luskin, declined to comment.

  • Miller said in a statement: “Gordon Sondland was one of thousands of contributors to President Trump’s historic efforts. I didn’t know Gordon Sondland prior to the campaign, and — in regard to the breakfast — I accompanied him in as I had for many others.”
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#264

Trump wonders why the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage wasn’t celebrated ‘a long time ago’

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#265

and blah blah blah…

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#266

U.S. Resumes Large-Scale Operations Against ISIS in Northern Syria

After a lull of several weeks, American troops and Syrian Kurdish fighters are once again conducting large-scale counterterrorism missions.

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