Diane Keaton is an amazing actress, no question. And this is one of her most amazing performances. I would rank it up there with ANNIE HALL, REDS, SHOOT THE MOON, SLEEPER, The GOOD MOTHER, and THE GODFATHER PART III.
Anyway, so Paul Sperry (NEW YORK POST) reported in May of 2017:
In dramatic testimony Monday, Obama holdover Attorney General Sally Yates testified that she warned the incoming White House its newly installed national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was “compromised” by a lie and therefore a potential “blackmail target” of the Russians. President Trump can be forgiven for ignoring her warning. It was Yates who was blackmailing him.
It’s clear from recent revelations that President Obama and his holdovers had a morbid fear of Lt. Gen. Flynn, an anti-Islamic terror hawk, and were gunning for him early in the transition, long before rumors he was involved in any alleged Russian conspiracy.
Just two days after the election, Obama urged President-elect Trump not to rehire Flynn, whom he once fired from the Pentagon. Obama reportedly made it clear he didn’t like the man. (Flynn says his views on Islam put him at odds with the former president.)
Then in late December or early January, someone working under Obama’s own national security adviser, Susan Rice, unmasked routine NSA intercepts of the Russian ambassador. Was it to spy on Flynn, Rice’s replacement?
Just days after the inauguration, moreover, Yates used those same NSA transcripts to try to get Flynn fired, by warning the White House that he was “vulnerable” to Russian extortion.
Despite her warnings, Flynn remained in his position for 18 more days (a gap Democrats say is as scandalous as “the 18-minute gap in the Nixon tapes”). He was only forced to resign after somebody from the Obama administration illegally leaked the intercepts to the Washington Post and created a political embarrassment for President Trump.
The conspiracy against General Flynn did not just happen and those who lied need to be punished, those who misused government resources to target the general need to be on trial and put behind bars.Over at THE FEDERALIST today, Margaret Cleveland reports:
In 1980, a teenage Amy Carter left a burnt cake in the oven of the White House’s family quarters in a reflex of childish revenge for her father’s landslide loss to Ronald Reagan. In 2017, Barack Obama and Joe Biden avenged Donald Trump’s surprise victory over Hillary Clinton by leaving what they claim was a Russian agent in the West Wing.
That conclusion inevitably follows if one accepts as credible the FBI’s supposed predicates for launching the Crossfire Hurricane investigation into the Trump campaign and the four related probes into George Papadopoulos, Carter Page, Paul Manafort, and Michael Flynn.
On July 31, 2016, the FBI opened the Crossfire Hurricane counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign, purportedly to learn if members of the Trump team were “coordinating or cooperating” with the Russian government to influence or interfere with the 2016 elections. By August 16, 2016, the FBI had opened four subsidiary investigations on individuals connected to the campaign, claiming their connections to Russian businesses, pro-Russian factions, or Russian-owned entities “reasonably indicated” they “may wittingly or unwittingly be involved in activity on behalf of the Russian Federation which may constitute a federal crime or threat to the national security.”
The FBI maintained that it opened the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, rather than providing Trump a defensive briefing on the report from a “friendly foreign government” that Russia had reached out to a member of his campaign to release damaging information on Hillary Clinton, because agents “had no indication as to which person in the Trump campaign allegedly received the offer from the Russians.” According to Counterintelligence Division Assistant Director E.W. “Bill” Priestap, “had we provided a defensive briefing to someone on the Trump campaign, we would have alerted the campaign to what we were looking into, and, if someone on the campaign was engaged with the Russians, he/she would very likely change his/her tactics and/or otherwise seek to cover-up his/her activities, thereby preventing us from finding the truth.”
Former deputy director of the FBI Andy McCabe likewise told Inspector General Michael Horowitz “that he did not consider a defensive briefing as an alternative to opening a counterintelligence case” because, “based on the [Friendly Foreign Government] information, the FBI did not know if any member of the campaign was coordinating with Russia and that the FBI did not brief people who ‘could potentially be the subjects that you are investigating or looking for.’”
McCabe further explained that “in a sensitive counterintelligence matter, it was essential to have a better understanding of what was occurring before taking an overt step such as providing a defensive briefing.”
So many lies and liars were used to go after General Flynn. All involved should be in prison.
Please go read the next two pieces:
In the first, Ava and C.I. take on the people attacking Tara Reade. In the second, C.I. takes on the nonsense 'documentary' about Natalie Wood.
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Monday, May 11, 2020. The attacks on Tara Reade continue.
Friday evening, Megyn Kelly posted her interview with Tara Reade on her YOUTUBE channel.
Elise Swain (THE INTERCEPT) notes:
Biden’s accuser, Tara Reade, was one of eight women who registered complaints of inappropriate touching in April of last year — before Biden ever jumped into the presidential race. As Biden appeared likely to be the Democratic nominee, Reade came forward in late March and told her story about her former boss. In an interview with podcast host Katie Halper, Reade said Biden penetrated her vagina with his fingers. She alleges the incident occurred in 1993, while she was an aide in his Senate office. What Reade describes is rape, according to the Department of Justice’s own definition. In an interview with Megyn Kelly, Reade has called on Biden to end his presidential bid and “step forward and be held accountable.”
[. . .
The name Lucy Flores may be all but forgotten in an exhausting year of political reporting. Flores was the first to come forward and register publicly that an encounter with Biden made her deeply uncomfortable. In a viral essay, Flores described how, in 2015, then-Vice President Biden made her feel “uneasy, gross, and confused” as she campaigned for lieutenant governor in Nevada.
“I feel him come up close behind me, and that’s when he leans in and he lingers around my head,” Flores recounted on Intercepted. “I hear him kind of inhale. And then he proceeds to plant this low kiss on the top of my head.” (Biden denied that he had acted inappropriately toward Flores.)
Seven more women came forward with similar stories of Biden’s manner of unwanted, inappropriate touching. Descriptions told of how his hands intimately lingered on everything from the women’s necks, shoulders, backs, or thighs. Some say his forehead pressed against theirs. Noses so close that they rubbed together. Breathing in the smell of hair. Kissing the back of the head.
At THE GUARDIAN, Daniel Strauss points out:
A small group of insurgent Democratic congressional candidates have begun to raise concerns that Reade’s allegations are not being taken seriously enough. Rebecca Parson, a liberal Democrat challenging the Washington state congressman Derek Kilmer, said in an interview on Friday that Biden should step down over Reade’s allegations. Parson said she believes Reade and thinks the charges create too much of a vulnerability for Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
“I want to defeat Donald Trump in November and yes, I’m a progressive and I’m in the left-wing of the party, but something that really unites the people in the centrist wing and the progressive wing is we all want to defeat Trump,” Parson said. “I don’t think we do that with somebody who has all these allegations against him, especially because Donald Trump has assault allegations against him and unfortunately with Donald Trump, Trump doesn’t care about being a hypocrite.”
Parson added: “I think that Biden should withdraw and any one or more of the candidates who aren’t running should restart their campaign because the Democratic primary isn’t over yet.”
[. . .]
But Parson is not alone in arguing that at this point Biden should drop out of the race. A Politico/Morning Consult poll found that over a third of Democratic voters surveyed say the party should switch out Biden as their presumptive nominee because of the allegations.
On Friday, Tara Reade was attacked by sexist pig Bill Maher whose own issues with woman go way beyond the trash he tried with Rose McGowan.
Why did Tara Reade wait so long to come forward!!!!!!
Golly, gee, what woman wouldn't want to be attacked and smeared by one attack dog after another? Right? A woman who has been assaulted has to survive the original assault and then the second assault which takes place when she comes forward.
Ryan Grim takes on one of the lies being told about Tara here. Michael Tracey's one of the pigs that's repeated the lie. ("Media: Pig Boys continue their war on women" is Ava and my latest taking on pig boys Michael, Bob Somerby and Bill Maher.) Your whole life is gone through by the media when you come forward so why come forward?
The reality is that Joe has a long history of lying. Joe Biden. It's what derailed his first presidential run. And he's continued to lie over and over. But instead of acknowledging that, people want to smear Tara.
Joe's the one lying in New Hampshire that he graduated top of his law school class when he was 76th out of 85. In our piece, Ava and I include this:
In August of 2008, Alexander Cockburn (COUNTERPUNCH) wrote:
Biden is a notorious flapjaw. His vanity deludes him into believing that every word that drops from his mouth is minted in the golden currency of Pericles. Vanity is the most conspicuous characteristic of US Senators en bloc , nourished by deferential acolytes and often expressed in loutish sexual advances to staffers, interns and the like. On more than one occasion CounterPunch’s editors have listened to vivid accounts by the recipient of just such advances, this staffer of another senator being accosted by Biden in the well of the senate in the weeks immediately following his first wife’s fatal car accident.
I guess before he died in 2012, Alex was plotting with Tara Reade and, according to Bill Maher, Putin about how to take down Joe Biden in 2020. Alex obviously seized on the idea of traveling back in time to 2008 to write the above, right?
Joe Biden's history is ugly and messy. It's one lie after another. Does the fact that he's a politician excuse that long pattern of lying?
Nothing excuses his lying.
But it's not even acknowledged.
RISING is set to address the topic of Bill Maher and other things later this morning.
Hopefully it won't be like NBC's MEET THE PRESS which 'ran out' of time for the topic of Tara Reade on Sunday.
May 7th, Iraq got their latest prime minister. ALJAZEERA reports:
THE NATIONAL adds:
The new premier also reinstated and promoted General Abdulwahab Al Saadi, a popular military figure whose abrupt dismissal by previous premier Adel Abdul Mahdi in September had been a main catalyst of the first protests.
[. . .]
Protesters turned out overnight in the city of Kut, setting fire to the
headquarters of the Iran-backed Badr Organisation and to the home of an MP affiliated with another Tehran-aligned faction, according to AFP.
Hundreds more hit the streets on Sunday morning.
And Mr Al Kadhimi called on parliament to adopt the new electoral law needed for early polls as demanded by the protesters.
Still, demonstrators remained sceptical.
"We will give him 10 days to prove himself, and if our demands aren't met, then we will escalate," said Mohammad, a student protester returning to Tahrir on Sunday.
"Today is a message."
In related news, Mina Aldroubi (THE NATIONAL) reports:
Police in Basra raided the headquarters of an Iran-backed militia accused of shooting at protesters in the Iraqi city.
In a police statement, cited by the state-run National Iraqi News Agency, said that party members were arrested, weapons and ammunition confiscated and an investigation into the shootings launched.
The militia group, named Thar Allah or God’s Revolution, was establish in 1995 and has been described as a “threat to Iraq’s stability.”
Crowds in the city rallied on Sunday night, days after the formation of a new government last week. People demonstrated outside the militia’s office.
Last night, I noted "The protesters are watching to see signs of change. Declaring Ali Allawi (Ahmed Chalabi's nephew) to be Minister of Oil probably doesn't signal any real change." An e-mail notes that Allawi is the Finance Minister. Yes, he is that. That's not all he is. From S&P GLOBAL this morning:
Iraq's new prime minister has appointed finance minister Ali Allawi as acting oil minister after parliament last week postponed a vote on the oil ministry post in OPEC's second largest producer, an oil ministry spokesperson told S&P Global Platts on Monday.
Allawi, who had served in previous governments following the US invasion in 2003, was appointed finance minister last week as parliament granted its vote of confidence to Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, most members of his cabinet and his government program.
Allawi, a former professor at Oxford University, was appointed by the Interim Iraq Governing Council in 2003 as both minister of trade and minister of defense and remained in his post until 2004. He later served as minister of finance in the Iraqi transitional government from 2005 to 2006.
New content at THIRD:
The following sites updated:
Friday evening, Megyn Kelly posted her interview with Tara Reade on her YOUTUBE channel.
Elise Swain (THE INTERCEPT) notes:
Biden’s accuser, Tara Reade, was one of eight women who registered complaints of inappropriate touching in April of last year — before Biden ever jumped into the presidential race. As Biden appeared likely to be the Democratic nominee, Reade came forward in late March and told her story about her former boss. In an interview with podcast host Katie Halper, Reade said Biden penetrated her vagina with his fingers. She alleges the incident occurred in 1993, while she was an aide in his Senate office. What Reade describes is rape, according to the Department of Justice’s own definition. In an interview with Megyn Kelly, Reade has called on Biden to end his presidential bid and “step forward and be held accountable.”
[. . .
The name Lucy Flores may be all but forgotten in an exhausting year of political reporting. Flores was the first to come forward and register publicly that an encounter with Biden made her deeply uncomfortable. In a viral essay, Flores described how, in 2015, then-Vice President Biden made her feel “uneasy, gross, and confused” as she campaigned for lieutenant governor in Nevada.
“I feel him come up close behind me, and that’s when he leans in and he lingers around my head,” Flores recounted on Intercepted. “I hear him kind of inhale. And then he proceeds to plant this low kiss on the top of my head.” (Biden denied that he had acted inappropriately toward Flores.)
Seven more women came forward with similar stories of Biden’s manner of unwanted, inappropriate touching. Descriptions told of how his hands intimately lingered on everything from the women’s necks, shoulders, backs, or thighs. Some say his forehead pressed against theirs. Noses so close that they rubbed together. Breathing in the smell of hair. Kissing the back of the head.
At THE GUARDIAN, Daniel Strauss points out:
A small group of insurgent Democratic congressional candidates have begun to raise concerns that Reade’s allegations are not being taken seriously enough. Rebecca Parson, a liberal Democrat challenging the Washington state congressman Derek Kilmer, said in an interview on Friday that Biden should step down over Reade’s allegations. Parson said she believes Reade and thinks the charges create too much of a vulnerability for Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
“I want to defeat Donald Trump in November and yes, I’m a progressive and I’m in the left-wing of the party, but something that really unites the people in the centrist wing and the progressive wing is we all want to defeat Trump,” Parson said. “I don’t think we do that with somebody who has all these allegations against him, especially because Donald Trump has assault allegations against him and unfortunately with Donald Trump, Trump doesn’t care about being a hypocrite.”
Parson added: “I think that Biden should withdraw and any one or more of the candidates who aren’t running should restart their campaign because the Democratic primary isn’t over yet.”
[. . .]
But Parson is not alone in arguing that at this point Biden should drop out of the race. A Politico/Morning Consult poll found that over a third of Democratic voters surveyed say the party should switch out Biden as their presumptive nominee because of the allegations.
On Friday, Tara Reade was attacked by sexist pig Bill Maher whose own issues with woman go way beyond the trash he tried with Rose McGowan.
Why did Tara Reade wait so long to come forward!!!!!!
Golly, gee, what woman wouldn't want to be attacked and smeared by one attack dog after another? Right? A woman who has been assaulted has to survive the original assault and then the second assault which takes place when she comes forward.
Ryan Grim takes on one of the lies being told about Tara here. Michael Tracey's one of the pigs that's repeated the lie. ("Media: Pig Boys continue their war on women" is Ava and my latest taking on pig boys Michael, Bob Somerby and Bill Maher.) Your whole life is gone through by the media when you come forward so why come forward?
The reality is that Joe has a long history of lying. Joe Biden. It's what derailed his first presidential run. And he's continued to lie over and over. But instead of acknowledging that, people want to smear Tara.
Joe's the one lying in New Hampshire that he graduated top of his law school class when he was 76th out of 85. In our piece, Ava and I include this:
In August of 2008, Alexander Cockburn (COUNTERPUNCH) wrote:
Biden is a notorious flapjaw. His vanity deludes him into believing that every word that drops from his mouth is minted in the golden currency of Pericles. Vanity is the most conspicuous characteristic of US Senators en bloc , nourished by deferential acolytes and often expressed in loutish sexual advances to staffers, interns and the like. On more than one occasion CounterPunch’s editors have listened to vivid accounts by the recipient of just such advances, this staffer of another senator being accosted by Biden in the well of the senate in the weeks immediately following his first wife’s fatal car accident.
I guess before he died in 2012, Alex was plotting with Tara Reade and, according to Bill Maher, Putin about how to take down Joe Biden in 2020. Alex obviously seized on the idea of traveling back in time to 2008 to write the above, right?
Joe Biden's history is ugly and messy. It's one lie after another. Does the fact that he's a politician excuse that long pattern of lying?
Nothing excuses his lying.
But it's not even acknowledged.
RISING is set to address the topic of Bill Maher and other things later this morning.
Hopefully it won't be like NBC's MEET THE PRESS which 'ran out' of time for the topic of Tara Reade on Sunday.
May 7th, Iraq got their latest prime minister. ALJAZEERA reports:
Iraq's judiciary ordered courts on Sunday to
release anti-government protesters, carrying out one of the first
decisions of the recently inaugurated prime minister, as dozens of
demonstrators burned tyres in renewed protests against the new
leadership.
Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi also promoted a
well-respected Iraqi general, who played a key role in the military
campaign against the armed group ISIL (ISIS) to lead counter-terrorism
operations.
THE NATIONAL adds:
The new premier also reinstated and promoted General Abdulwahab Al Saadi, a popular military figure whose abrupt dismissal by previous premier Adel Abdul Mahdi in September had been a main catalyst of the first protests.
[. . .]
Protesters turned out overnight in the city of Kut, setting fire to the
headquarters of the Iran-backed Badr Organisation and to the home of an MP affiliated with another Tehran-aligned faction, according to AFP.
Hundreds more hit the streets on Sunday morning.
And Mr Al Kadhimi called on parliament to adopt the new electoral law needed for early polls as demanded by the protesters.
Still, demonstrators remained sceptical.
"We will give him 10 days to prove himself, and if our demands aren't met, then we will escalate," said Mohammad, a student protester returning to Tahrir on Sunday.
"Today is a message."
In related news, Mina Aldroubi (THE NATIONAL) reports:
Police in Basra raided the headquarters of an Iran-backed militia accused of shooting at protesters in the Iraqi city.
In a police statement, cited by the state-run National Iraqi News Agency, said that party members were arrested, weapons and ammunition confiscated and an investigation into the shootings launched.
The militia group, named Thar Allah or God’s Revolution, was establish in 1995 and has been described as a “threat to Iraq’s stability.”
Crowds in the city rallied on Sunday night, days after the formation of a new government last week. People demonstrated outside the militia’s office.
Last night, I noted "The protesters are watching to see signs of change. Declaring Ali Allawi (Ahmed Chalabi's nephew) to be Minister of Oil probably doesn't signal any real change." An e-mail notes that Allawi is the Finance Minister. Yes, he is that. That's not all he is. From S&P GLOBAL this morning:
Iraq's new prime minister has appointed finance minister Ali Allawi as acting oil minister after parliament last week postponed a vote on the oil ministry post in OPEC's second largest producer, an oil ministry spokesperson told S&P Global Platts on Monday.
Allawi, who had served in previous governments following the US invasion in 2003, was appointed finance minister last week as parliament granted its vote of confidence to Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, most members of his cabinet and his government program.
Allawi, a former professor at Oxford University, was appointed by the Interim Iraq Governing Council in 2003 as both minister of trade and minister of defense and remained in his post until 2004. He later served as minister of finance in the Iraqi transitional government from 2005 to 2006.
New content at THIRD:
- Truest statement of the week
- A note to our readers
- Media: Pig Boys continue their war on women
- Natalie Wood: The lies that remain repeated (C.I.)...
- Dear THIRD ESTATE SUNDAY REVIEW
- Podcast of the week
- Video must stream
The following sites updated:
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Augustin Hadelich: Tiny Desk Concert3 hours ago
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The reaction18 hours ago
