Last Call For The Mustache Gets Back To Work

Don't feel bad for now former National Security Adviser John Bolton, as always with the people Trump stabs in the front, there's plenty of wingnut welfare waiting for them upon their return to the private sector, and Bolton landed on his feet almost immediately.

John Bolton, ousted this week as White House national security adviser, wasted no time in resuming his political activity and opening up his checkbook to support Republican candidates.

Bolton, who has a regular political action committee and a super PAC, announced Friday that he was donating $10,000 each to the reelection campaigns of five lawmakers: Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.).

“The experience that these incumbent members of Congress have provides them with a remarkable understanding and knowledge of the threats we face from international terrorism and rogue regimes such as Iran and North Korea,” Bolton said in a statement.

Bolton, who is known to support military intervention, reportedly clashed with President Trump over how to deal with international conflicts, particularly with the Iranian and North Korean governments. He resigned from his White House post Monday.

During his nearly year and a half at the White House, Bolton’s political account was sitting on $2.4 million cash on hand, mostly raised from a handful of wealthy GOP mega-donors, such as Robert Mercer, who gave him six-figure checks in 2017 and 2018.

Not only is Bolton personally fine, he's back in charge of his own super PAC, giving out cash to Republican campaigns.  He's already been folded back into the right-wing noise machine in under a work week.

Say what you will about Trump and Bolton, but that permanent ATM for guys in the club like Bolton is open 24/7, and I'm convinced it's that efficiency that keeps Trump's former employees from going full whistleblower when they leave.

Hotel, Motel, Trumpaday Inn, Con't

So it turns out it wasn't just one US Air National Guard crew in Scotland that went to stay at Donald Trump's Turnberry resort on the taxpayer dime.  It was 40 separate times this happened since 2015, as somebody at WIN THE MORNING actually decided to do some investigative journalism.

The tally represents the preliminary results of an Air Force review launched after POLITICO reported last week that an Air National Guard crew stayed at Turnberry in March. Congressional Democrats have also been investigating military stays at the property, but have yet to receive any information from the Pentagon.

The figure does not indicate how many of the stays have occurred since Trump became president. But the Air Force has significantly ramped up its overnight stops in Scotland under Trump after signing a contract with the Prestwick Airport — situated 20-plus miles from Turnberry — in the waning months of the Obama administration. Since 2015, the service has lodged crews in the area 659 times, meaning up to 6 percent of those stays were at Turnberry.

The figure also does not account for the total number of people the Air Force has put up at Trump Turnberry during those roughly 40 stays. POLITICO previously reported that Air Force crews of five to nearly 40 people have lodged at Trump's waterside property over at least four stays since September 2018.

The Air Force has said the refueling stops at Prestwick — and all related overnight stays — are well within Pentagon guidelines. Prestwick frequently books the Air Force crews’ lodging at Turnberry, the airport acknowledged in a statement, and often arranges for their transportation to and from the resort. Officials have also said the Turnberry bookings fall within acceptable rates for military travel, as military members are charged a government rate as low as $130 per night.

But the Air Force did concede that the appearance of staying at the president’s posh property might create a negative perception, and it has launched an internal review that will assess the “guidance associated with the use of civil airports and lodging selection for aircrew at en route locations,” according to a memo issued Monday.

Still, the issue is the latest example of the intersection of Trump’s business interests and what used to be unremarkable government policies.

Air Force crews have been lodging at Turnberry because of the increasing importance of Prestwick Airport for refueling military aircraft. In 2015, the Air Force made 95 stops there, lodging in the area 40 times. But through August of this year, the Air Force had made 259 stops at Prestwick, staying overnight nearby 220 times.

The roughly 40 stays at Turnberry are likely to raise eyebrows among congressional Democrats, who have said the practice raises conflict-of-interest concerns and might violate the Constitution's domestic emoluments clause, which prohibits the president from receiving money from the federal government other than his salary.

So this was happening as candidate Donald Trump was running for office in 2015, GOP nominee Trump was on the campaign trail in 2016, and after he won and took office in 2017 and since.

It's amazing how nobody bothered to look into this until now.

Spies Like Us, Con't

Remember those mobile phone call-intercepting "Stingray" devices found around Washington DC near the White House just after Trump took office? We first heard about them in June of last year.

The Department of Homeland Security last year found evidence of devices that can secretly catch cell phone communications around the White House and other “potentially sensitive” areas of Washington, D.C., a letter made public Friday reveals.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said that the letter, written to him by Homeland Security official Christopher Krebs, is “more evidence” that Americans are “being spied on, tracked, or scammed,” possibly by foreign spy agencies in some cases.

Wyden said phone companies and the Federal Communications Commission should be taking action to strengthen cell phone security on the heels of the letter.

Homeland Security said sensors it deployed from January 2017 through November spotted activity that appeared consistent with the devices, which can monitor individual cellphone calls and texts. Known formally as International Mobile Security Identity devices, they are commonly known as StingRays.

Such devices are known to be used by foreign spies.

And then the mystery went away, disappeared into the memory hole.  Until now, it seems. Just a reminder this morning that Russia isn't the only intelligence friend or foe that the United States has, not by a long shot.  Our good friends in Tel Aviv are also very fond of the modern Reaganism, "Trust, but spy on them anyway."

The U.S. government concluded within the past two years that Israel was most likely behind the placement of cellphone surveillance devices that were found near the White House and other sensitive locations around Washington, according to three former senior U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter.

But unlike most other occasions when flagrant incidents of foreign spying have been discovered on American soil, the Trump administration did not rebuke the Israeli government, and there were no consequences for Israel’s behavior, one of the former officials said.

The miniature surveillance devices, colloquially known as “StingRays,” mimic regular cell towers to fool cellphones into giving them their locations and identity information. Formally called international mobile subscriber identity-catchers or IMSI-catchers, they also can capture the contents of calls and data use.

The devices were likely intended to spy on President Donald Trump, one of the former officials said, as well as his top aides and closest associates — though it’s not clear whether the Israeli efforts were successful.

Trump is reputed to be lax in observing White House security protocols. POLITICO reported in May 2018 that the president often used an insufficiently secured cellphone to communicate with friends and confidants. The New York Times subsequently reported in October 2018 that “Chinese spies are often listening” to Trump’s cellphone calls, prompting the president to slam the story as “so incorrect I do not have time here to correct it.” (A former official said Trump has had his cellphone hardened against intrusion.)

By then, as part of tests by the federal government, officials at the Department of Homeland Security had already discovered evidence of the surveillance devices around the nation’s capital, but weren’t able to attribute the devices to specific entities. The officials shared their findings with relevant federal agencies, according to a letter a top Department of Homeland Security official, Christopher Krebs, wrote in May 2018 to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

Based on a detailed forensic analysis, the FBI and other agencies working on the case felt confident that Israeli agents had placed the devices, according to the former officials, several of whom served in top intelligence and national security posts.
That analysis, one of the former officials said, is typically led by the FBI’s counterintelligence division and involves examining the devices so that they “tell you a little about their history, where the parts and pieces come from, how old are they, who had access to them, and that will help get you to what the origins are.” For these types of investigations, the bureau often leans on the National Security Agency and sometimes the CIA (DHS and the Secret Service played a supporting role in this specific investigation).

“It was pretty clear that the Israelis were responsible,” said a former senior intelligence official.

An Israeli Embassy spokesperson, Elad Strohmayer, denied that Israel placed the devices and said: “These allegations are absolute nonsense. Israel doesn’t conduct espionage operations in the United States, period.”

Sure.  And Israel doesn't have a nuclear weapons, either.

If any other country on Earth had been caught doing this, it would have been a massive international incident.  But the Israelis got busted and it didn't matter.  Now, I'm sure whatever intelligence Netanyahu wanted, he got by asking.  But at least in January 2017, the plan was tapping Trump's unsecured cell phone.

Here's the question though.  Why are we finding out about this now?  Maybe this has something to do with it.

ICE wants to hack more phones. A lot more.

The contentious immigration enforcement agency has expanded its work with Cellebrite, an Israeli data extraction company best known for offering to crack the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone at the behest of the FBI in 2016. Cellebrite reportedly broke into the device for the Bureau, though the FBI disputed that story. The company’s technology can bypass most smartphones’ locks and download data from all their apps for law enforcement.

According to a recent federal filing, ICE will pay Cellebrite between $30 and $35 million for “universal forensic extraction devices” (UFED) and “accessories licenses, training and support services.” The contract, worth more than ten times the value of the $2.2 million agreement between the two agencies signed in 2017, will last between one and five years. The request originated from ICE’s Dallas office, according to a notice of intent posted June 24th. The synopsis of the contract also states that Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and its Cyber Crimes Center (C3) plan to use Cellebrite’s technology. Within ICE, HSI leads investigations into child trafficking, drug smuggling, and fraud.

A single UFED retails for $5,000 to $15,000, according to Forbes, meaning ICE could be buying as many as 6,000 the devices from Cellebrite.
It’s unclear what use ICE will put Cellebrite’s technology to and where it will do so. When The Daily Beast contacted ICE Contracting Officer Tracy Riley for details, Riley said she would “absolutely” not provide more details about the contract. Cellebrite did not respond to a request for comment. ICE’s office of public affairs responded to The Daily Beast but did not yet provide a comment.

CBP officers searched the devices of more than 30,000 international travelers in 2017—10,000 more than the year prior, according to the most recently available data (ICE does not make such data available). In response to a lawsuit filed against the two agencies last year, CBP and ICE said their searches were “a crucial tool for detecting evidence relating to terrorism and other national security matters” and “can also reveal information about financial and commercial crimes.”

Privacy advocates have decried warrantless searches of electronic devices at the border for allegedly violating constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizures.

Trump looks the other way on the spying, and the US gets cellphone cracking tech from Israel in return...or maybe Israel threatened to kill the contract if the White House made a fuss.

But again, somebody leaked the Stingray story.  Three "former US officials".  Within 24 hours of news that Andrew McCabe is probably facing federal indictments.

This is far from over, folks.

StupidiNews!

• With a month left in the fiscal year, the federal deficit topped $1 trillion dollars on top of last year's $900 billion as the GOP tax cut continues to sink the economy.
• A new Moody's report finds Trump's China tariffs have already cost the country 300,000 jobs this year as White House officials are looking to delay additional tariffs set to go into effect in October.
• The Trump regime is set to revoke California's automotive emissions waiver under the Clean Air Act as the White House continues to roll back as many Obama-era environmental protections as it can.
• Donald Trump claims former National Security Adviser John Bolton, fired this week by tweet, was holding Trump back on dealing with additional measures against Venezuela and Cuba.
• Although distant planet K2-18b is a Neptune-like world without a solid surface, astronomers say the planet's atmosphere appears to have water vapor and even clouds.

Last Call For It's All About Revenge Now, Con't

As I said last month, the Barr "Justice" Department is coming for Andrew McCabe and it's 100% happening at Donald Trump's order.  The decks have been cleared and the charges are most likely coming.

Former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe’s legal team has been notified that the Justice Department authorized prosecutors to seek an indictment against him for lying to investigators, according to two people familiar with the matter, though it remains unclear whether McCabe will be charged.

McCabe’s team was notified of Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen’s decision in a message Wednesday, which said, “The Department rejected your appeal of the United States Attorney’s Office’s decision in this matter. Any further inquiries should be directed to the United States Attorney’s Office,” one person familiar with the matter said.

McCabe’s team was told last month that line prosecutors had recommended charges, and later, that D.C. U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu had endorsed that decision, a person familiar with the matter said. Last month, McCabe’s team had appealed to Rosen in what was considered one of the final efforts to persuade officials not to move forward and seek an indictment from a grand jury. The legal team had been waiting to hear back.

The notification comes as a federal grand jury investigating McCabe was suddenly recalled this week after a months-long hiatus — an indication its members would likely be asked soon to consider bringing charges. But the panel was let go Thursday with no immediate signs of an indictment — a sign they might have balked, been asked to return later or filed a determination under seal.
To bring an indictment, prosecutors would have to convince 12 of the 23 grand jurors to sign onto the decision. If grand jurors turn them down, it is possible for prosecutors to call in a new group, though they would then have to start the process over.

The decision, whenever it is made clear, is likely to inflame partisan divisions and once again thrust the Justice Department to the center of a political combat zone.

It's possible that the grand jury refused to return any indictments, but more likely the grand jury has a lot of work to do, and it will take a few days for the full slate of charges to be worked through.  Certainly the Trump regime wants to go through with charges as McCabe's appeal was rejected.

They'll get their charges eventually, maybe as soon as tomorrow or Monday.

Again, McCabe will not be the last Obama holdover involved in the Mueller investigation to be charged.

Gunmerica, Corporate Citizen Edition

Republicans constantly blocking gun safety and background check laws are starting to get the attention of corporate America, with 145 CEOs signing on to a letter demanding GOP Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell act on pending House legislation passed by Nancy Pelosi and House Dems.

Signatories to a letter sent Thursday include the heads of such major retailers, tech firms and financial institutions as Levi Strauss, Twitter, Uber, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Yelp, Bain Capital and Reddit. The letter pointed to mass shootings in recent weeks — including those in El Paso; Dayton, Ohio, and Gilroy, Calif. — but also called out a broader epidemic of gun violence that kills 100 Americans each day and wounds hundreds more.

“As leaders of some of America’s most respected companies and those with significant business interests in the United States, we are writing to you because we have a responsibility and obligation to stand up for the safety of our employees, customers and all Americans in the communities we serve across the country,” the executives wrote.

“Doing nothing about America’s gun violence crisis is simply unacceptable and it is time to stand with the American public on gun safety."

[Read the letter here]

Corporate America has increasingly weighed in on — or been forced to reckon with — pressing social and political issues such as immigration and abortion. With regard to gun violence, companies in the retail and banking sectors have considered whether to overhaul their policies or distance themselves from the vast firearms industry. Gun sellers have come under acute pressure to limit the weapons sales, especially since 24 people were killed at two separate shootings in Walmart stores this summer.

A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found Americans across party and demographic lines overwhelmingly support expanded background checks for gun buyers and allowing law enforcement to temporarily seize weapons from troubled individuals. The poll found 86 percent of Americans support implementing “red flag” provisions that allow guns to be taken from people judged to be a danger to themselves or others. In addition, 89 percent support expanding federal background checks to cover private sales and gun-show transactions.

Still, some companies have faced backlash after changing their gun policies or speaking out on the issue. Sales at Dick’s Sporting Goods declined after the company overhauled its sales rules following the mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., last year, with some customers calling for a boycott and dozens of employees walking off the job. More recently, as Walmart came under scrutiny after two of its stores became crime scenes, the National Rifle Association and gun rights groups encouraged members to stop shopping at retailers that tightened their open carry policies.

Specifically, Thursday’s letter urged the Senate to pass a bill requiring background checks on all gun sales plus a strong red-flag law that would allow courts to issue extreme-risk protection orders. Earlier this year, the Democratic House passed legislation that would require background checks on all gun sales, including unlicensed sales arranged at gun shows or online. But similar efforts have stalled in the Senate.

Walmart didn't sign this particular letter, but this is still a pretty big array of CEOs across multiple sectors of the economy.  I don't know how much this will affect the Senate, probably zero, but it would have far more effect if any of these companies stopped giving money to Republican Senate candidates.

Nothing will come of this, of course, but it remains notable.

Deportation Nation, Con't

As I've been warning for years now, as soon as the Trump regime had the logistics in place for mass detentions and deportations like it has been building for the last 18 months, with camps, ICE recruits, and the private for-profit prison industry leading the way to run the show, the Trump regime was always going to eventually use that machinery on US citizens it felt were undesirable. 

Now the regime is signaling the time to turn that dark power against the US people has arrived, and the purge will start with America's homeless population.

A team of Trump administration officials toured a California facility once used by the Federal Aviation Administration this week as they searched for a potential site to relocate homeless people, according to three government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private tour.

President Trump has directed aides to launch a major crackdown on homelessness in California, spurring an effort across multiple government agencies to determine how to deal with sprawling tent camps on the streets of Los Angeles and other cities, officials said.

Trump is expected to visit California on Tuesday and Wednesday. One administration official with knowledge of Trump’s visit to California said there were discussions about an announcement related to California’s growing homeless problem next week, but a second official said that any decision could be premature and that it was not on the current schedule for the trip.

Trump has asked aides to figure out “how the hell we can get these people off the streets,” one senior administration official said.

The FAA facility toured by administration officials is located in or near Los Angeles, but its precise name or whereabouts — or whether it is a current or former government facility — were not immediately known.

It also remains unclear how the federal government could accomplish getting homeless people off the streets of Los Angeles, or what legal authority officials would use to do so.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that the administration is considering razing tent camps, creating new temporary facilities or refurbishing government facilities as part of Trump’s directive on homelessness. The changes would attempt to give the federal government a larger role in supervising housing and health care for residents.

Pay attention.  This is the part where people disappear off the streets and get put in facilities run by ICE, citizenship be damned.  We'll get rid of homelessness by rounding up the homeless and putting them in camps.

And then maybe they go away.

Some administration officials expressed skepticism that the federal government wanted to get in the business of operating a large homeless shelter in Los Angeles. There were also questions about the feasibility of turning the FAA facility into a shelter and how it could legally be done.

One administration official with knowledge of Trump’s visit to California said there were discussions about a homelessness announcement next week.

Senior administration officials said that forcing people into new facilities was not under consideration, with one official telling The Washington Post: “We’re not rounding people up or anything yet. You guys in the media get too ahead of yourselves.”

We're not rounding people up or anything yet.

It's like a bad sci-fi cable movie, only it's real.

Los Angeles officials were blindsided by news of the sweeping plans being considered by the administration for the city’s homeless population. Some had thought White House officials were arriving this week to simply learn more about the issues.

The administration’s delegation divulged little information to city officials about what they were doing in Los Angeles when they were not with city representatives.

“They were very cagey with us about what they were doing,” said a Los Angeles city official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid. “Our only understanding from them coming into this was they wanted to poke around and learn more about what we were doing out here. All this stuff about cracking down and sweeping people out of skid row was a total surprise to us.”

The Trump administration team also met for an open-ended discussion about homelessness with the Los Angeles police union, according to an official with direct knowledge of the meeting, which was first reported by the Los Angeles Times.

Gotta get the cops in on the fun.  If you ever entertained the thought that this was going to stop with undocumented immigrants, have I got hundreds of years of authoritarian history for you.

StupidiNews!

• The last missing victim of last weekend's deadly dive boat fire in California has been located by officials, the death toll from the flames and the boat sinking reached 34.
• As expected, the US Supreme Court lifted a federal judge's injunction on the Trump regime's new asylum rules blocking nearly all Central American entrants into the country.
• Palestinian demonstrators vowed to fight Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's re-election pledge to annex all of the West Bank, saying Israel cannot win.
• The Trump regime is looking at banning flavored e-cigarette products entirely after FDA reports showing teenagers suffering from lung cancer after vaping.
• Video game retailer GameStop says it will close around 190 of its 5,700 stores in the next six months, coming on top of almost 200 closures in 2019 and a "much larger" number over the next two years.

Last Call For Bringing Rubber Bands To An Artillery Duel

North Carolina Republicans remain the worst people in America, as the GOP-controlled state House overrode Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's budget veto while most House Democrats were at the state's 9/11 memorial ceremony this morning.

In a stunning display of contempt for democracy, House Speaker Tim Moore, a Cleveland County Republican, called a surprise vote to overturn Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the state budget just after a session opened at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. Democratic lawmakers and the media had been told by Republican leaders that there would be no vote in the morning.

Most Democrats were absent. Enough Republicans, aware of the secret plan, were there. When Rep. Jason Saine, a Lincolnton Republican, made the motion to reconsider the state budget, the handful of Democrats on hand objected strenuously.

"This is a travesty of the process and you know it,” said Rep. Deb Butler, D-New Hanover.

That it was, but with these Republicans a travesty of the process is just business as usual. With only 64 of the House’s 120 members present, the vote to override passed 55-9.

Now it’s up to Democrats in the Senate to follow their conscience — and perhaps for a few Senate Republicans to find theirs — and refuse to follow the theft in the House with the necessary three-fifths vote in the Senate.

The decision will be up to individual members. Senate leader Phil Berger was no doubt aware of Moore’s plan to end run Democratic opposition. It’s a grim reality that there are likely no Senate Republicans who — however they may feel about the budget — would turn away from participating in this act of subterfuge. In a sense, the budget that comes before them to be made into law is the legislative equivalent of stolen goods. So what, they’ll figure, our side stole it; Democrats shouldn’t have been so trusting. Tough.

But this isn’t a case simply of hardball politics and sly legislative maneuvering. This is a case of breaking faith with the people of North Carolina and with all who strove and sacrificed over generations to protect and advance North Carolina’s political system as one based on a true representation of the people’s will, a true democracy.

And the legislation at issue isn’t a bill of limited scope. It is the state budget. It is how North Carolina defines itself by the priorities it sets in spending. And it’s being held up by a dispute over a major issue that involves billions of federal dollars and ultimately affects everyone in the state, Medicaid expansion.

North Carolina's Medicaid expansion is on the line, plus billions in other cuts that the NC GOP wants to make to the budget that Cooper vetoed.  They would need a three-fifths vote in the state Senate to complete the override, but Republicans only have a 29-21 majority and would need 30 votes.  Unfortunately, odds are pretty good they can get that single vote, because North Carolina. And if they can't, Senate President Phil Berger pulls the same move that the House GOP did.

This is horrific, but the NC GOP won't pay a price at all for this.

JUST IN: @JasonSaine97th (R-Lincoln) responds to @ABC11_WTVD question about his motion to call for a veto override vote this morning on 9/11. At least one @nchousedems, @RepGPierce1 (Hoke), attended #September11 memorial. @ABC11_WTVD @JTHVerhovek @ABCPolitics #ncga #ncpol pic.twitter.com/ZAssb0e1Wh

— Jonah Kaplan (@KaplanABC11) September 11, 2019

Rep. Saine's excuse for going ahead with the vote?  If we stop the business of America for memorials, the terrorists win.

You thought 9/11 was a somber day of reflection?  Screw you, hippie.  We've got people to kick off Medicaid.


Democrats are still bringing rubber bands to artillery duels and they will keep losing to Republicans who don't give a damn every time.

Boris Bad Enough Versus Scotland

I'm going to say that the government of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is rapidly approaching the "no longer a going concern" stage of the game.

A panel of three Scottish judges ruled Wednesday morning that Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament was illegal, escalating an already passionate debate over whether the British prime minister respects the rule of law and throwing into even greater doubt his plans for Brexit.

The ruling does not mean Parliament will immediately come back into session. But it does give the prime minister’s opponents hope ahead of an expected Supreme Court hearing next week. Some even raised the prospect that Johnson will have to resign if he loses that case.

The Scottish judges ruled that the government had been misleading — including, perhaps, to the queen — about its real reasons for the five-week suspension and that the move was “unlawful because it had the purpose of stymying Parliament.”

The Supreme Court case will be heard on Tuesday after the prime minister’s office said it would appeal the Scottish ruling. “We are disappointed by today’s decision,” Downing Street said. A government spokesperson later ruled out recalling Parliament at least until the Supreme Court has a chance to weigh in.

Wednesday’s ruling contradicts two other judgments. Courts in England and Wales had ruled that Johnson’s move was legal. Another Scottish judge, meanwhile, had decided the courts did not have the authority to interfere in the suspension.

Scotland has a separate legal system from England and Wales; the Supreme Court, which is based in London, rules on matters relating to both jurisdictions.

Johnson critics celebrated Wednesday’s decision saying they had been “vindicated.”

“You cannot break the law with impunity, Boris Johnson,” Joanna Cherry, one of more than 70 lawmakers who brought the case in Scotland, told reporters outside the court in Edinburgh. “The rule of law will be upheld by Scotland’s courts, and I hope also the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.”

Next week's court ruling I should imagine will be rather important.  Meanwhile, the "no-deal Brexit" that Johnson insists he will follow through with will be, by his government's own estimations, an absolute disaster of biblical proportions, as the government has now released the text of Operation Yellowhammer, the contingency plans for the end of next month if there's no Brexit deal.

The plans confirm the leaks about Yellowhammer from a few weeks ago.

A government document from Aug. 1 leaked to the Sunday Times laid out projections of how the U.K. would fare if it exits the European Union without a deal on Oct. 31. The forecasts, compiled by the Cabinet Office under the ominous, James Bond–esque title “Operation Yellowhammer,” include shortages of fresh foods, medicines, and months of delays at British ports lasting up to six months. It also predicted the establishment of a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic—a key sticking point in the negotiations—and widespread protests. A government source told the Times, “These are likely, basic, reasonable scenarios — not the worst case.”

It's not the worst case.

The worst case scenario, you know, the one with martial law and anarchy, is supposedly covered underneath "Operation Black Swan".

As bad as things are here stateside, the UK is in mortal peril.

And Boris Bad Enough is in charge.

Maria, Mofongo And Malice

The most corrupt administration in American history continues as we find out now that of course rebuilding Puerto Rico's power grid after Hurricane Maria was going to be a massive grift job, and of course former FEMA officials were on the take to the tune of thousands.

A former top administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency was arrested on Tuesday in a major federal corruption investigation that found that the official took bribes from the president of a company that secured $1.8 billion in federal contracts to repair Puerto Rico’s shredded electrical grid after Hurricane Maria.

Federal authorities arrested Ahsha Tribble, FEMA’s former deputy administrator for the region that includes Puerto Rico, and Donald Keith Ellison, the former president of Cobra Acquisitions, prosecutors in Puerto Rico announced. They were accused of conspiring to defraud the federal government, among other charges.

A second FEMA employee, Jovanda R. Patterson, who worked as a deputy chief of staff in Puerto Rico under Ms. Tribble and was later hired by Cobra, was also arrested, said Rosa Emilia Rodríguez Vélez, the United States attorney for Puerto Rico.

Ms. Tribble and Mr. Ellison had a “close personal relationship,” Ms. Rodríguez Vélez said, in which Mr. Ellison lavished Ms. Tribble with gifts in exchange for her to use her influence inside FEMA to give Cobra an advantage.

The gifts ranged from a helicopter tour over Puerto Rico to securing an apartment in New York, the authorities said. They included airplane tickets, including one first class ticket from San Juan, the Puerto Rican capital, to New York, and hotel stays in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Charlotte, N.C.
Mr. Ellison and Ms. Tribble traveled together and stayed in the same room, Ms. Rodríguez Vélez said.

In return for the gifts, Ms. Tribble is accused of performing official acts to advance Cobra’s interests. For example, according to the indictment, in February 2018, after the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority reported an explosion at a transmission center, Ms. Tribble insisted that the public utility hire Cobra to make repairs or risk not getting reimbursed by FEMA — even though leaders of the utility insisted they could do the same work at a far lower cost.
“They took advantage of one of the most vulnerable moments in the history of Puerto Rico to enrich themselves,” Ms. Rodríguez Vélez said.

President Trump has repeatedly cast Puerto Rico’s leaders as incompetent and corrupt. Tuesday’s arrests, however, did not involve any Puerto Ricans, but rather a longtime federal employee now serving under the Trump administration.

Six people, including two senior Puerto Rican government officials, were arrested by the federal authorities in a separate case in July on charges of steering $15.5 million in federal contracts to politically connected consultants. The case stirred unrest against the governor at the time, Ricardo A. Rosselló. A leak of hundreds of pages of a private text chat between him and his inner circle days later unleashed two weeks of mass protests that led to Mr. Rosselló’s resignation.

Investigators in the latest case found no evidence that any staff member at the power authority, commonly known as PREPA, was involved in the scheme, prosecutors said.

Cobra is a subsidiary of Mammoth Energy Services. Peter Mirijanian, a Mammoth spokesman, said the company has been working with the authorities.

“Mammoth is aware of and has been cooperating with the government’s investigation into Ms. Tribble and Mr. Ellison and will continue to do so,” he said.

Nope, this was all FEMA, getting rich the way Trump does.  The only difference is that nobody's going to arrest him.

StupidiNews!

• Democratic US House candidate Dan McCready came up short against GOP rival Dan Bishop in a close NC-9 special election after GOP absentee ballot election fraud annulled the 2018 contest.
• Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin says that Donald Trump is willing to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, but that "maximum pressure" sanctions will continue.
• Apple unveiled a new iPhone, announced a $4.99 monthly streaming TV service starting November 1, and a $5 monthly mobile gaming service among several new offerings at its yearly event.
• New figures show a net two million Americans lost their health insurance in 2018 as the Trump regime continues to drag its feet on implementing the Affordable Care Act.
• The FDA is blasting e-cigarette maker Juul over product health claims and giving presentations to kids in schools, in at least one instance without teachers present or parental consent.

Last Call For Everyone's Coming For Google

Every US state and territory -- with the glaring exception of California, of course, and for some reason Alabama -- is joining Texas to sue Google over antitrust violations for controlling 75% of the internet ad market.  It's about time.  Google doesn't need to be broken up, it needs to be shattered.

Attorneys general for 50 U.S. states and territories on Monday officially announced an antitrust investigation of Google, embarking on a wide-ranging review of a tech giant that Democrats and Republicans said may threaten competition, consumers and the continued growth of the web.

Appearing on the steps of the Supreme Court, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton charged that Google “dominates all aspects of advertising on the Internet and searching on the Internet,” though he cautioned that despite his criticism the states had launched an investigation for now and not a lawsuit.

Paxton said the probe’s initial focus is online advertising. Google is expected to rake in more than $48 billion in U.S. digital ad revenue this year, far rivaling its peers, while capturing 75 percent of all spending on U.S. search ads, according to eMarketer.

“They dominate the buyer side, the seller side, the auction side and the video side with YouTube,” he said during a news conference alongside officials from 11 states and the District of Columbia.

Some of those attorneys general appeared to raise additional complaints about Google, ranging from the way the company processes and ranks search results to the extent to which it may not fully protect users’ personal information. Their early rebukes raised the stakes for Google, threatening top-to-bottom scrutiny of its sprawling business beyond just ads. Paxton promised the probe would go wherever the facts lead.

“There’s nothing wrong with being a dominant player when it’s done fairly,” said Sean Reyes, the Republican attorney general of Utah. He said there is a “presumption” of innocence in such an investigation but still said there is a “pervasiveness” to complaints about Google’s business practices.

Jeff Landry, a Republican from Louisiana, added: “We’re here because there’s an absolutely existential threat to our virtual marketplace.”

Google declined to comment, pointing to its previous statements saying it will work with state officials.

The probe marks the latest regulatory headache for Google and the rest of Silicon Valley, which have faced growing criticism — and widening state and federal scrutiny — into whether they’ve grown too big and powerful, undermining rivals and resulting in costlier or worse service for web users. The Post first reported the states’ plans for a Google probe last week.

For Google, though, the states’ investigation comes more than six years after federal watchdogs wrapped up an antitrust investigation into its search and advertising practices and opted against bringing major penalties against the company, including breaking it up. Regulators around the world, meanwhile, have been more skeptical of Google: The European Union has issued the company $9 billion in competition-related fines over the past three years. 

The Obama administration really dropped the ball on Google and let them get away scot-free, the result was Google's internet ads being the tool of choice by Russian hackers to manipulate voters in 2016 to help Donald Trump.

As far as California not joining in, well the state's getting its taxes from Google. Alphabet, Google's parent company, paid $2.1 billion in state and federal taxes in 2018.  They're not going to cut the golden goose's throat.

California AG Xavier Becerra says the state is not joining in because of "potential and ongoing investigations" into the company but my guess is that he was told not to touch them...and oh year, Becerra like basically every other California Democrat, took Google money for his campaign when he was in the US House.

Hopefully this will lead to a crack-up.  Google made almost one out of every three global ad dollars on the internet in 2019.

It's got to go.

Spies Like Us, Con't

Yesterday's Russian spy story from CNN where the CIA pulled a key Russian spy out of the Kremlin because Trump was going to run his mouth and blow their cover has been confirmed by the NY Times late last night, and the details of the operation are far more damning of Donald Trump that originally reported.

Decades ago, the C.I.A. recruited and carefully cultivated a midlevel Russian official who began rapidly advancing through the governmental ranks. Eventually, American spies struck gold: The longtime source landed an influential position that came with access to the highest level of the Kremlin. 

As American officials began to realize that Russia was trying to sabotage the 2016 presidential election, the informant became one of the C.I.A.’s most important — and highly protected — assets. But when intelligence officials revealed the severity of Russia’s election interference with unusual detail later that year, the news media picked up on details about the C.I.A.’s Kremlin sources. 

C.I.A. officials worried about safety made the arduous decision in late 2016 to offer to extract the source from Russia. The situation grew more tense when the informant at first refused, citing family concerns — prompting consternation at C.I.A. headquarters and sowing doubts among some American counterintelligence officials about the informant’s trustworthiness. But the C.I.A. pressed again months later after more media inquiries. This time, the informant agreed. 

The move brought to an end the career of one of the C.I.A.’s most important sources. It also effectively blinded American intelligence officials to the view from inside Russia as they sought clues about Kremlin interference in the 2018 midterm elections and next year’s presidential contest.

CNN first reported the 2017 extraction on Monday. Other details — including the source’s history with the agency, the initial 2016 exfiltration offer and the cascade of doubts set off by the informant’s subsequent refusal — have not been previously reported. This article is based on interviews in recent months with current and former officials who spoke on the condition that their names not be used discussing classified information. 

Officials did not disclose the informant’s identity or new location, both closely held secrets. The person’s life remains in danger, current and former officials said, pointing to Moscow’s attempts last year to assassinate Sergei V. Skripal, a former Russian intelligence official who moved to Britain as part of a high-profile spy exchange in 2010.

The Moscow informant was instrumental to the C.I.A.’s most explosive conclusion about Russia’s interference campaign: that President Vladimir V. Putin ordered and orchestrated it himself. As the American government’s best insight into the thinking of and orders from Mr. Putin, the source was also key to the C.I.A.’s assessment that he affirmatively favored Donald J. Trump’s election and personally ordered the hacking of the Democratic National Committee. 

The informant, according to people familiar with the matter, was outside of Mr. Putin’s inner circle, but saw him regularly and had access to high-level Kremlin decision-making — easily making the source one of the agency’s most valuable assets.

When it became clear that Putin ordered the hacking of the DNC and used WikiLeaks as a cutout to get that information to Roger Stone in order to help Donald Trump and hrt Hillary Clinton, the source was imperiled.  That's why the most valuable Russian asset we had (well, that we know of) in the Kremlin was pulled.  The information against Trump was too solid to not have come from anywhere else but a close source to Putin.

So yeah.  Donald Trump cost us a major Russian inside source, not because of his big mouth, but because he was taking help from the goddamn Russians and got caught.

And of course, now Trump is attacking the entire idea of foreign human intelligence.

President Donald Trump has privately and repeatedly expressed opposition to the use of foreign intelligence from covert sources, including overseas spies who provide the US government with crucial information about hostile countries, according to multiple senior officials who served under Trump. 

Trump has privately said that foreign spies can damage relations with their host countries and undermine his personal relationships with their leaders, the sources said. The President "believes we shouldn't be doing that to each other," one former Trump administration official told CNN. 

In addition to his fear such foreign intelligence sources will damage his relationship with foreign leaders, Trump has expressed doubts about the credibility of the information they provide. Another former senior intelligence official told CNN that Trump "believes they're people who are selling out their country." 

Even in public, Trump has looked down on these foreign assets, as they are known in the intelligence community. Responding to reports that the CIA recruited Kim Jong Un's brother as a spy, Trump said he "wouldn't let that happen under my auspices." 

These new details about Trump's approach to foreign intelligence follow CNN's exclusive report that the United States in 2017 removed one of its highest-level covert sources inside the Russian government. CNN reported on Monday that the asset provided the US with insight and information on Russian President Vladimir Putin and that the extraction was driven, in part, by concerns that Trump and his administration repeatedly mishandled classified intelligence and could contribute to exposing the spy.

Because foreign CIA apies "hurt" Trump's relationship with autocratic dictators like Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin.

Can we please impeach this cancer traitor monkey now?

BREAKING: John Bolton's Mustache Fired

The Mustache is out.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he has asked national security adviser John Bolton to resign, noting that he "strongly disagreed with many of his suggestions as did others in the administration." 

"I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House. I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning," Trump tweeted. "I thank John very much for his service. I will be naming a new National Security Advisor next week," he added. 

The tweet came just one hour after the White House press office said Bolton was scheduled to appear at a Tuesday press briefing alongside Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. 

Bolton tweeted minutes after Trump's announcement, "I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, 'Let's talk about it tomorrow.'" 

CNN reported last week that tensions between top figures on Trump's national security team had devolved into all-out hostility, creating a deep disconnect between staffers on the National Security Council, led by Bolton, and the rest of the administration, six people familiar with the matter said. 

Bolton was initially brought into the administration last year to replace HR McMaster partly due to his hawkish position on Iran -- supporting Trump's exit from the Iran nuclear deal -- but he soon began to clash with the President's vision for diplomacy in North Korea and most recently on Afghanistan.

Amazingly enough, Trump's malignant narcissism and refusal to give Bolton credit for anything, plus Bolton's own towering ego, is what probably stopped Trump from going to war with Iran so far.

I still think Trump is going to get there, especially as the 2020 election gets closer and it becomes more apparent that Trump will lose.

We'll see who follows this act.

Also, let's remember the Mustache is why Bolton wasn't hired in the first place.