The Washington Post on Tuesday published the final column submitted by Jamal Khashoggi’s assistant before Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. He has not been seen or heard from since.
The noose appears to be tightening further around the law-less behaviors of the Obama administration in their frantic efforts to protect former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from lawsuits seeking information about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email server and her handling of the 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
As Fox News reports, the transparency group Judicial Watch initially sued the State Department in 2014, seeking information about the response to the Benghazi attack after the government didn't respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Other parallel lawsuits by Judicial Watch are probing issues like Clinton's server, whose existence was revealed during the course of the litigation.
The State Department had immediately moved to dismiss Judicial Watch's first lawsuit, but U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth (who was appointed to the bench by President Ronald Reagan) denied the request to dismiss the lawsuit at the time, and on Friday, he said he was happy he did, charging that State Department officials had intentionally misled him because other key documents, including those on Clinton's email server, had not in fact been produced.
"It was clear to me that at the time that I ruled initially, that false statements were made to me by career State Department officials, and it became more clear through discovery that the information that I was provided was clearly false regarding the adequacy of the search and this – what we now know turned out to be the Secretary’s email system."
"I don’t know the details of what kind of IG inquiry there was into why these career officials at the State Department would have filed false affidavits with me. I don’t know the details of why the Justice Department lawyers did not know false affidavits were being filed with me, but I was very relieved that I did not accept them and that I allowed limited discovery into what had happened."
In a somewhat stunningly frank exchange with Justice Department lawyer Robert Prince, the judge pressed the issue, accusing Prince of using "doublespeak" and "playing the same word games [Clinton] played."
That "was not true," the judge said, referring to the State Department's assurances in a sworn declaration that it had searched all relevant documents.
"It was a lie."
Additionally, Fox notes that Judge Lamberth said he was "shocked" and "dumbfounded" when he learned that FBI had granted immunity to former Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills during its investigation into the use of Clinton's server, according to a court transcript of his remarks.
"I had myself found that Cheryl Mills had committed perjury and lied under oath in a published opinion I had issued in a Judicial Watch case where I found her unworthy of belief, and I was quite shocked to find out she had been given immunity in — by the Justice Department in the Hillary Clinton email case."
On Friday, Lamberth said he did not know Mills had been granted immunity until he "read the IG report and learned that and that she had accompanied [Clinton] to her interview."
We give the last word to Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, who was present at the hearing, as he pushed the White House for answers.
“President Trump should ask why his State Department is still refusing to answer basic questions about the Clinton email scandal,” Fitton said.
“Hillary Clinton’s and the State Department’s email cover up abused the FOIA, the courts, and the American people’s right to know.”
Perhaps the deep state remains in control behind the scenes after all (consider the recent back-pedal on declassifying the Russian probe documents)?
Teen Vogue is on the frontlines of the fight against capitalism, but it won't come without some resistance from Twitter.
In April, the magazine published an article titled, "What 'Capitalism' Is and How It Affects People." The article compares capitalism, which could possibly leave the world in a "dystopian Mad Max nightmare in which resources have dwindled, rich plutocrats own everything," to a much more desirable system of socialism. The article was retweeted on Wednesday with a caption that called for ending poverty with the end of capitalism.
Predictably, the internet had something to say about a for-profit business rallying against capitalism.
If there was ever an example needed of bizarre brainwash, this is it. The Teen Vogue, yes the Teen Vogue, whose business model is body shaming teenagers and children, frankly, into crazed consumerism, is tweeting about ending capitalism. Can anything be more moronic? https://t.co/yT0t0nV3rH
I'm sorry, don't you literally stay in business because you sell a product to consumers based on supply & demand in a free market capitalistic economy? https://t.co/geK10pDpWE
The actual article isn't nearly as bad (not that it's good) as this bat**** insane tweet. Bat**** insane and terrifying that someone thinks this appeals to teens.
Oh, and Vogue is owned by the Newhouse family which Google says is worth 13 billion. Just an observation. https://t.co/BdZLLNoxO7
Others anxiously awaited the new direction of Teen Vogue's content.
I await @TeenVogue's how-to feature on hooking up with the hottest guys at the re-education camp (hint: they're often the guards!) https://t.co/Rg52KXLf8P
• 5 Makeup Looks to be Ready for the Revolution
• He Loves Me/He Loves Me Not: the Dialectic
• Look hot for summer with the Venezuela diet!
• FMK, Communist Dictator Edition
• Quiz: Based on Your Style, Are You a Class Traitor, Proletariat, or Vanguard?
• And more! https://t.co/vxCdHpJtdB
In fact, there are several reports within the last 10 years that have shown that the number of people who lived on less than $2 a day in the 1980s has been cut nearly in half, while the number of those who used to live on less than $1 a day is only a third of what it used to be. It would seem that global trends favor systems that promote "private property, economic growth, freedom of choice, and limited government intervention," as is so aptly described in the piece. As Reason's Steve Chapman previously wrote, it's becoming more difficult for anti-capitalists to ignore reality.
The "weaponized autists" at 4Chan have done it again, because they can; a new meme suggesting that liberals are soulless idiots who can't think for themselves has gone viral. The concept compares Democrats to "nonplayable characters," or NPCs - the recurring characters in video games with repetitive lines and limited knowledge. Lack of an "inner voice" is a dead giveaway that someone may be an NPC.
The NPC meme essentially meant to ridicule the post-election perpetual outrage culture in which liberals simply parrot the latest talking points from their favorite pundits, who do their thinking for them.
The 4chan version is a simple greyed out, expressionless face known as "NPC Wojak" - which has triggered the left so hard that Twitter conducted a mass-banning campaign for accounts promoting the meme, and the New York Times wrote an entire article trying to figure it out.
The Times writes of the Twitter bans:
Over the weekend, Twitter responded by suspending about 1,500 accounts associated with the NPC trolling campaign. The accounts violated Twitter’s rules against “intentionally misleading election-related content,” according to a person familiar with the company’s enforcement process. The person, who would speak only anonymously, was not authorized to discuss the decision. -NYT
There is precisely zero evidence that the accounts were spreading "intentionally misleading election-related content," so we're just going to have to take Twitter's word for it.
According to KnowYourMeme, the NPC meme was created in 2016 after an anonymous 4chan user made a threat titled "are you an NPC?" to the /v/ video games board.
On September 5th, 2018, several threads were submitted to 4chan discussing people who did not have an "inner-voice." In the comments sections, many described those who do not have an internal monologue as "NPCs." On September 7th, a grey-colored variation of Wojak began appearing in threads about NPCs (shown below).KnowYourMeme
The triggering begins
After the meme began to spread, Twitter user @brightabyss accused those who "refer to living humans being as NPCs" as being "facist""
If you sincerely refer to living human beings as NPCs you are a fascist, an enemy of to your own species, and basically a complete shitbag person. Dehumanization is not some cool trend of thought by Caucasian as fuck grad students, it’s the capitalist erasure of ethics.
And according to KnowYourMeme, "On September 15th, Twitter user @DreddByDawn tweeted that NPC was "dog whistle" used by "fascists." The same day, Twitter user @Sharessan accused a centrist of being a "fascist in denial" after labeling them an NPC. Meanwhile, Twitter user @stackflow33 tweeted a screenshot of the tweets along with the message "What the fuck is even going on anymore? Lmao.""
Fascists adopt dog whistles so quickly that as soon as one becomes recognizable to the public (like SJW) they’ve moved on, it’s not coincidence, it’s plausible deniability. “NPC” is explicitly meant to dehumanize, they’ll take advantage of lack of recognition as long as they can
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the United States has asked Turkey for any audio or video evidence it may have related to the disappearance of U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi but was not sure whether any such evidence exists.
Twitter has released millions of tweets, images and videos from thousands of accounts they claim are linked to operatives based in Russia and Iran, who have used the platform to spread disinformation. The company says it is releasing the information to encourage independent analysis by journalists, academics and researchers.
Example of tweet from account tied to Russian influence operations (Twitter)
The data sets comprise 3,841 accounts affiliated with Russia's Internet Research Agency (IRA) and 770 other accounts "potentially originating in Iran," according to a statement by Twitter.
Today we are releasing all the accounts and related content associated with potential information operations that we have found on our service since 2016. We had previously disclosed these activities, but are now releasing substantially more information about them to enable independent academic research and investigation.
We are making this data available with the goal of encouraging open research and investigation of these behaviors from researchers and academics around the world.
These large datasets comprise 3,841 accounts affiliated with the IRA, originating in Russia, and 770 other accounts, potentially originating in Iran. They include more than 10 million Tweets and more than 2 million images, GIFs, videos, and Periscope broadcasts, including the earliest on-Twitter activity from accounts connected with these campaigns, dating back to 2009. -Twitter
As Bloomberg notes, the announcement comes as EU officials brace for potential meddling "by Russia-backed operatives and their copycats" right before the bloc's spring elections, where far-right parties have made massive gains amid a surge of anti-migrant populism.
In August, Twitter disclosed details of an attempted influence campaign they say originated in Iran, while the company has also flagged content linked to the IRA - sending notices to users who have interacted with the accounts.
Twitter had previously suspended the 770 suspected Iranian accounts for "engaging in coordinated manipulation" and violating user policies.
President Trump on Wednesday said the U.S. has requested audio and video from Turkey related to the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. "We have asked for it, if it exists," Trump said in the Oval Office, later conceding...
Several public funds that hold shares in Facebook Inc on Wednesday backed a proposal to remove Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg as chairman, saying the social media giant mishandled several high-profile scandals.
At least 19 people were killed and dozens injured at a college in the Black Sea region of Crimea on Wednesday when a student went through the building shooting at fellow pupils before killing himself, Russian law enforcement officials said.
A U.S. Treasury Department official has been criminally charged with leaking confidential documents relating to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and others to a reporter from digital media company BuzzFeed, Manhattan federal prosecutors said on Wednesday.
"America's toughest sheriff," also known as "America's worst lawman," is seeking $147.5 million in damages over a New York Timesop-ed that pointed out some of his worst abuses of power.
First, a bit of background. Joe Arpaio served as sheriff of Maricopa County from 1993–2017. After losing his re-election bid in November 2016, he set his sights on the U.S. Senate. As it turns out, the Donald Trump-loving, illegal immigration-hating former lawman wasn't too popular, even among Arizona conservatives. He finished a distant third in the GOP primary with about 19 percent of the vote.
Following his loss, Times editorial board member Michelle Cottle penned an August 29 op-ed titled: "Well, at Least Sheriff Joe Isn't Going to Congress." Cottle slammed him for "terrorizing immigrants" and characterized his "24-year reign of terror" as "medieval in its brutality." Cottle's points are valid. Reason, in fact, has been reporting for years on the Arpaio regime's horrific abuses.
Unsurprisingly, Arpaio wasn't thrilled with the op-ed. On Tuesday, a lawyer for the ex-sheriff filed a libel lawsuit against Cottle and the Times alleging "several false, defamatory factual assertions." The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, claims those "assertions are carefully and maliciously calculated to damage and injure Plaintiff Arpaio both in the law enforcement community… as well as with Republican establishment and donors."
The lawsuit takes particular issue with several passages from Cottle's op-ed. Cottle called him "a true American villain" and said his "methods often crossed the line into the not-so legal." He's "a disgrace to law enforcement" and "a sadist masquerading as a public servant," she wrote. According to the lawsuit, those statements "portray Plaintiff Arpaio in a false light."
Cottle backed up those criticisms with plenty of previously reported facts about Arpaio's tenure. Nothing she said was a wild or even new accusation, though the lawsuit says they're "defamatory," since they "falsely accused" the former sheriff "of committing a serious crime." Here's the passage in question:
His 24-year reign of terror was medieval in its brutality. In addition to conducting racial profiling on a mass scale and terrorizing immigrant neighborhoods with gratuitous raids and traffic stops and detentions, he oversaw a jail where mistreatment of inmates was the stuff of legend. Abuses ranged from the humiliating to the lethal. He brought back chain gangs. He forced prisoners to wear pink underwear. He set up an outdoor "tent city," which he once referred to as a "concentration camp," to hold the overflow of prisoners. Inmates were beaten, fed rancid food, denied medical care (this included pregnant women) and, in at least one case, left battered on the floor to die.
The number of inmates who hanged themselves in his facilities was far higher than in jails elsewhere in the country. More disturbing still, nearly half of all inmate deaths on his watch were never explained.
At the same time, Mr. Arpaio's department could not be bothered to uphold the laws in which it had little interest. From 2005 through 2007, the sheriff and his deputies failed to properly investigate, or in some cases to investigate at all, more than 400 sex-crime cases, including those involving the rape of young children.
The language is harsh, but that doesn't make it any less true. Last year, for instance, a federal judge found Arpaio to be in criminal contempt of court for ignoring a 2011 order telling him, on constitutional grounds, to stop racially profiling and detaining Latino residents. As Reason's C.J. Ciaramella explained at the time, Arpaio was only let off the hook because President Donald Trump decided to pardon him.
Ciaramella further pointed out how prisoners were mistreated in Maricopa County jails, including at the infamous "tent city." As Cottle wrote, that mistreatment included inmates being forced to wear pink underwear and work on chain gangs. In one tragic case, a man who was being held in downtown Phoenix died after he was beaten and tased by deputies. And the terrible conditions for Maricopa County prisoners extended to at least one undocumented pregnant woman, who won $200,000 in damages after being shackled while in labor.
Cottle's assertion about inmate deaths, particularly suicides, under Arpaio's watch is valid as well. As the Phoenix New Times pointed out in a 2015 headline: "Prisoners Hang Themselves in Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Jails at a Rate That Dwarfs Other County Lockups." From 1996–2015, 39 of the 157 inmates—nearly 25 percent—who died in custody hanged themselves. Plus, 73—or 46 percent—of the total deaths went unexplained.
Finally, Cottle's assertion about Arpaio's approach to sex crimes is also true. As The New York Times reported last year:
His deputies failed to investigate or conducted only the sketchiest of inquiries into hundreds of sex crimes between 2005 and 2007, investigations by Arizona law enforcement agencies have shown. Many of those cases involved molested children.
Arpaio even said at the time that "if there were any victims, I apologize to those victims."
If Arpaio thinks he's going to win $147.5 million on the basis that Cottle's claims aren't true, then he's sorely mistaken. But that's not the only weird part of his logic.
The lawsuit claims Arpaio plans to make another Senate run in 2020. His chances of winning have apparently "been severely harmed" by Cottle's op-ed. That's a laughable argument for several reasons. Setting aside the fact that he'll be 88 years old in 2020, Arpaio has been a controversial figure for a while. People hated him long before Cottle's op-ed, and they would have continued to do so even if she hadn't written it.
And to point out the obvious, Arpaio was never going to win in the first place. If he couldn't get 20 percent of Republicans to vote for him this time around, he probably won't do much better in 2020.
The Times, meanwhile, appears to be holding its own. "We intend to vigorously defend against the lawsuit," spokesperson Eileen Murphy told Politico.
Arizonians have shown they have no use for "America's worst lawman." Hopefully the court will dismiss Arpaio's frivolous lawsuit.
Project Veritas Action Fund has released a third undercover video from campaigns during this 2018 election season. This report exposes how incumbent Senator McCaskill and individuals working on her campaign conceal their liberal views on issues in order to court moderate voters.
Paul Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with his childhood friend Bill Gates before becoming a billionaire philanthropist who invested in conservation, space travel, arts and culture and professional sports, died Monday. He was 65.
U.S. President Donald Trump got a first-hand look on Monday at the “total devastation" that Hurricane Michael brought to Florida, as rescuers searched for scores of missing people and hundreds of thousands of residents remained without power.
In the third undercover video filmed by Project Veritas during the ongoing 2018 election season, Missouri Senator McCaskill's considerably more liberal views - "essentially the same as [Obama's]" - are exposed as she and her campaign staff conceals them in order to court moderate voters... and she needs them as her and her opponent are essentially tied:
Said James O’Keefe, founder and president of Project Veritas Action:
“This undercover report shows just how broken our political system has become. Senator McCaskill hides her true views from voters because she knows they won’t like them.”
Senator McCaskill Talks Gun Bans on Tape
Senator McCaskill revealed her intention to vote on various gun control measures in undercover footage:
MCCASKILL: “Well if we elect enough Democrats we’ll get some gun safety stuff done. They won’t let us vote on it, we’ve got 60 votes for a number of measures that would help with gun safety, but McConnell won’t let ’em come to the floor.”
JOURNALIST: “Like bump stocks, ARs and high capacity mags…?”
MCCASKILL: “Universal background checks, all of that… But if we have the kind of year I think we might have I think we could actually be in a position to get votes on this stuff on the floor and we’d get 60 [votes]…”
JOURNALIST: “So you would be on board with the bump stocks and… high capacity mags.”
MCCASKILL: “Of course! Of course!”
Despite her strong views on gun control, Senator McCaskill does not tend to promote them on the campaign trail or on her website. Rob Mills, who works on Senator McCaskill’s campaign, says that is “…because she has a bunch of Republican voters.”
Another individual who works on Senator McCaskill campaign, Carson Pope, adds that “…a semi-automatic rifle ban is more so what she would support.”
“People just can’t know that.”
According to Mills, Senator McCaskill conceals her support of Moms Demand Action, a gun control group, and other similar organizations because they would “…hurt her ability to get elected.”
MILLS: “But she doesn’t openly go out and support groups like ‘Mom’s Demand Action’ or just like other groups that are related to that. Because that could hurt, her ability to get elected. Because people like see that and they’re like well I don’t want to support her even though they stand for the same policies…”
MILLS: “She’s worked out stuff with Mom’s Demand Action to make sure that she can support their goals without supporting the organization openly. And you know, Mom’s Demand Action does the exact same thing. Like a lot of our volunteers are actually from there. She’s really good about strategy and making sure she has a goal and can get there.”
Nicolas Starost, another individual who works on Senator McCaskill’s campaign, explains how President Obama won’t campaign for Senator McCaskill in Missouri despite their similar views on politics. Starost says this is because Senator McCaskill needs to distance herself from the Democratic party to appeal to more voters:
STAROST: “Because of how like, cause he’s a very liberal candidate. And like… Claire distancing herself from the party is gonna help her win more votes than it will saying like: “Oh here’s Obama, the former President of the United States, to now speak on my behalf.” Which is unfortunate because I love Obama to pieces, and I’d love to see him come here.”
JOURNALIST: “And they essentially have the same views on everything?”
STAROST: “Yeah. People just can’t know that.”
Impeachment
Another individual who works on Senator McCaskill’s campaign, Glen Winfrey, explains plans for the impeachment of President Trump:
JOURNALIST: “So, here’s the real question, Claire holds off on impeachment to get the moderate. What do we tell the moderates when we drop the impeachment hammer afterward?”
WINFREY: “Get over it. It was a national security question. That information was confidential, and she did her duty by not revealing the information until afterward.”
Teen Vogue is on the frontlines of the fight against capitalism, but it won't come without some resistance from Twitter.
"America's toughest sheriff," also known as "America's worst lawman," is seeking $147.5 million in damages over a New York Times op-ed that pointed out some of his worst abuses of power.
A federal judge dismissed Stormy Daniels' defamation lawsuit against President Donald Trump on Monday.
