Sorry I got to this a little late, but I was working on something offline. Anyhow, here is the live stream of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing to review the DOJ IG’s report. Testifying before the committee are DOJ IG Horowitz and FBI Director Wray. Things to watch for:
- The Republican members of the committee to hammer both Director Wray and IG Horowitz on who should be punished and why they haven’t/aren’t being punished. As well as the Republican members of the committee hammering IG Horowitz about why people connected to the Clinton’s weren’t/aren’t being prosecuted.
- The Democratic members of the committee inquiring about why the report doesn’t deal with the reported in the IG report significant anti-Clinton bias and leaks out of the NY Field Office of the FBI during the campaign. Senators Feinstein has already been all over this and Senator Leahy is now asking Director Wray about it.
Open thread!
germy
This has probably been answered already, but I missed it: Will there be a Part 2 to the IG’s report, one that specificaly addresses the FBI NY office?
JTL
@germy: Supposedly, yes. The way things are going, who knows?
M4
@JTL:
This is essentially my analysis of everything in the world right now.
bluehill
Putin’s making his next move. Interest rates will have to go up in order to attract buyers or the Fed is going to have to start buying again. Morans.
Adam L Silverman
@germy: Both IG Horowitz and Director Wray refused to confirm or deny that to Senator Leahy about ten minutes or so ago when he asked directly if there is an ongoing investigation into this issue. IG Horowitz stated that it is against DOJ policy to publicly confirm or deny any investigation (which is true under the Privacy Act of 1974). Brad Moss, who has an active FOIA litigation into this matter has tweeted this in response to Wray’s response:
Adam L Silverman
@bluehill: But the President said that winning a trade war is easy…
M4
@bluehill: the Fed has some rate hikes coming up to stop our out of control 2% inflation, don’t they?
Adam L Silverman
@M4: Yes. Part of the reason inflation has gone up, however, is the result of the tariffs that the President put on washing machines. That’s caused a significant chunk in the spike.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I think this might prove very interesting
sdhays
@Adam L Silverman: So how did we all know that this other investigation (the one that was released last week) was going on? Why was that announced and not covered by the Privacy Act? Did the Preznit just shit all over the Privacy Act so it didn’t matter?
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That’s what set the President off this morning.
Adam L Silverman
Director Wray looks like he might just throttle Senator Lee with Senator Lee’s tie.
TenguPhule
@sdhays:
Do popes piss in the woods?
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
You big tease.
JPL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The republicans prefer to use him, rather than have him testify.
It won’t happen.
M4
@Adam L Silverman: I didn’t realize that washing machines were such a big part of the inflation index.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
The tariffs on everything else may cause stagflation in the near future too.
JPL
@TenguPhule: When a republican senator starts questioning, I put on mute.
Adam L Silverman
@sdhays: My take away from IG Horowitz’s answer, in combination with Director Wray’s, is that if there is an investigation, it is not an IG investigation. IG investigations can be referenced though their contents should remain confidential until complete and unless they need to be classified. These are separate from regular DOJ/FBI investigation, which is never supposed to be confirmed or denied as a result of DOJ policies derived from the Privacy Act of 1974.
I can’t prove it, but my take on this, based on what reporting has existed since last year, is that the investigation into the NY Field Office and leaks out of it, was part of the counterintelligence investigation, which Special Counsel Mueller inherited.
The simple reality is we will simply have to wait and see.
TenguPhule
@M4:
Durable good. 25% increase in price due to the tariffs. Expect another 10% hike from the metal tariffs in materials.
Food and energy are both going to spike hard once the rest of the tariffs make their way down the supply chains.
germy
Accuracy In Media
Drudge Report uses 2012 photo taken in Syria for story about US-Mexico border
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: Only when camping. Or hiking. Or logging.//
Adam L Silverman
@M4: I read several reports that because of the price spikes that the tariff caused, it created a significant bump in inflation.
ruemara
@Adam L Silverman: This is very concerning. That office needs investigation & housecleaning.
M4
@Adam L Silverman: can’t wait for summer gas prices.
jonas
If any of this stuff were happening under a Democratic administration, esp. with the governing party’s entire establishment AND the president himself accusing the FBI of all manner of malfeasance and corruption, every headline would be about how outraged the rank-and-file are at being attacked. It would be the whole story. “Bureau ready to revolt over President’s accusations….” etc. would be blazoned across the FYFNYT every day. So where’s that story now?
Gin & Tonic
Somebody might want to look into that 500 error on this post’s front page.
rikyrah
someone on another blog had a simple question with regards to the kids:
let’s be blunt- that is only a solution for those who actually WANT to keep up with the children.
rikyrah
Hmmmmmmmm
Gin & Tonic
@Gin & Tonic: I think that might be just me.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
The only time a government agency doesn’t have paperwork about their detainees, is when they’re doing shit to them so illegal that they can’t risk any written records of it leaking and linking specific people to specific victims.
Yarrow
@M4: Gas prices keep creeping up but they usually do in summer. What’s going to really sting is if (when) they don’t go down again in the fall.
Roger Moore
@rikyrah:
Plastic wristbands are too easy to lose. I’m sure DHS will start tattooing them with unique numbers any day now.
TenguPhule
@Gin & Tonic:
No, I get the 500 error too.
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: I keep wondering when Republicans are going to go after FOIA.
jonas
@Yarrow: I forget where I read it the other day (WSJ?), but supposedly Trump has asked Putin and Saudi Arabia to turn the faucets on next fall to help him in the midterms.
sdhays
@Adam L Silverman: Ah, I see. That would be a positive development, assuming that the investigation is allowed to reach its conclusion.
JPL
@jonas: Of course he did.
Yarrow
@jonas: We’ll see how that goes. The various tariffs could have made things difficult by then so it doesn’t matter as much.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: Yep. And this won’t be much fun either:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/second-opinion-trade-dispute-canada-us-drug-patents-intellectual-property-1.4708630
Much more fun at the link.
efgoldman
@Adam L Silverman:
Most Americans are innumerate; he leads the ignorance parade. Kind of surprising for someone who’s business, other than grifting, is real estate.
bluehill
@M4: Yes, Fed has been hiking rates to slow or head off inflation. They actually want some amount of inflation. I think they are targeting 2%, I’m guessing they would prefer it to be from increased consumption and wage growth rather tariffs or trying to fund our debt. Without directing intervening, the Fed is really just signaling that they want rates to increase; other bank lending rates are based on the fed funds rates. However, US treasury sales of US t-bills, bonds and notes are done by auction, so it’s supply and demand and other factors can influence the yield besides the the Fed’s actions.
TenguPhule
@efgoldman:
FTFY.
Nobody legitimate buys real estate for 2-3 times the appraised value.
Adam L Silverman
@M4: That’s why I have a hybrid that get’s between 45 to 50 mpg in the city.
GregMulka
@TenguPhule:
I had the same thing on Youtube. I thought it was SSL inspection.
Adam L Silverman
I’d like to see Salena Zito explain this one…
GregMulka
@Adam L Silverman:
I hate that I want a VW but I want the electric Mystery Machine in 2022. Assuming we’re not all glowing.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
Holy fucking shit. That’s the economic equivalent of ordering a carpet bombing and an artillery barrage. It’s only two or three steps down from full economic nuclear exchange.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: Huh?
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
Kim has a dick. Pelosi does not. Ergo….
Mary G
UGH
M4
@Adam L Silverman: clearly we must make Kim Jong Un the leader of the House Democrats if we want to win the votes of hardworking white people.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman: Your video link is giving a 500 error half of the time when refreshing.
Adam L Silverman
Ooopsie!
ETA:
Adam L Silverman
@Adam L Silverman: @TenguPhule: Perhaps this explains it:
bluehill
@TenguPhule: All of our other trading partners are going through the same exercise. It may be tit for tat in monetary terms, but I doubt it will be equivalent in terms of strategic value.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: @TenguPhule: I’ve let Alain know and asked him to take a look.
Adam L Silverman
@jonas: Asking Putin to help is stupid. All of Russia’s petroleum is under sanctions.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
Didn’t Trump already tell us this himself immediately after the meeting ended?
Why the surprise?
M4
@Adam L Silverman: @TenguPhule: I remember this as well.
I’m curious who plugged in their gifted USB fans.
Adam L Silverman
@GregMulka: Your florescent green aura is a sign of your overall good health.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
And what have we learned about Trump over the last 3 years?
efgoldman
@Adam L Silverman:
Repeating: The country has (or had) “allies.” Weasel Face does not, and doesn’t know what he word means.
Repatriated
@GregMulka:
Why was I not informed of this?
(Note that they haven’t mentioned range or cost, and most of the nifty features like the retractable steering wheel and HUD won’t make it into production. Even so…)
TenguPhule
@bluehill: Threatening patents is one of those things that American businesses really really pay attention to.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: I believe it is the economic equivalent of dropping a couple of MOABs. As a national security professional I’d love to see them do it to see if it will force the people that actually own the country to rein this crap in.
TenguPhule
@efgoldman:
Trump thinks allies means “suckers”. Granted, he thinks every other word for other people means the same thing.
JPL
Propublica has an audio copy of wailing sounds inside the facility. I haven’t listened yet, because it’s not five.
https://www.propublica.org/article/children-separated-from-parents-border-patrol-cbp-trump-immigration-policy
Jager
I just got into it with a relative from Iowa in an email exchange.
I could give a shit what fundamentalist Iowa farmers think about California, do they even know California is the number one ag state in the country? If they are willing to take a 640 million dollar a year kick in the ass, because they are worried more about social issues than the economy of their entire state, that’s their fucking problem. It’s not my problem that their politicians won’t even address the issue in public. When they start getting their combines repossessed, when they fall behind on their mortgages, when they can’t buy groceries they can look in the mirror.
I grew up in ND, a farm state with oil. My relatives were all excited about the oil boom until they realized that 90% of the leases were owned by out of state and foreign interests and the money just disappeared over the border. All the oil boom did for my home state is drive up the price of homes and everything else in the god forsaken place. My sis was out here and we drove up the coast, you can see the offshore rigs in the Channel Islands, on 101 you drive right by the station where the oil is tanked and put into the pipe lines, guess what nobody works there anymore. You drive by the pumps north of Santa Maria, nobody works there anymore. Kath and I saw one pickup driving around the entire oil field with 100’s of pumps and tanks in the middle of a weekday.
They had that big packing plant bust in Tennessee last week arrested over a 100 illegal workers and hauled them off to who knows where. You know who should be hauled off and jailed, the fucking guy who hired them, somehow he gets interviewed and he whines about who is going to work in the packing plant? Where are those nice American girls who are willing to scrub the blood off the killing floor for minimum wage? Where are those able bodied assholes who chant USA! USA! USA! when the skin needs to be ripped off a cow’s head? The county the plant is in has the highest percentage of opioid usage in the state. And it isn’t the brown people working their asses off for minimum wage getting stoned on their asses everyday. Grow the fuck up.
JPL
@Mary G: I didn’t notice your post. Have you listened? I read Sophie’s Choice and then saw the movie. The screaming tore me to pieces.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: He hadn’t said it was his personal, and therefore unsecured, cell #. Just a direct number.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
Spoiler alert: It won’t.
If the money people were able to rein these Nazis in, they would have done so before the stupid shits got other countries to erect their counter-tariffs.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: He uses a cotton candy machine to do his hair every morning?//
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman: AFAIK Trump hasn’t bothered to get a secured phone like President Obama did. I assumed immediately he meant the unsecured line.
Because it was the stupidest thing he could have done.
M4
@Jager: word.
I'll be Frank
@Adam L Silverman: Not to triffle, but the second fastest growing expense is the plug figure to adjust for home owners not being subject to rent changes. Imputed rent has been either the fastest or second fastest growing expense item for the last several quarters. It really is a case of deciding what number they want and then computing their way to it.
rikyrah
Now, we’re up to almost TWELVE THOUSAND CHILDREN in the custody of DHS?
TWELVE THOUSAND?
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: The reporting is that he has two unsecured phones. One for tweeting. One for talking to his friends and outside advisors. I did a post on this and why it was a national security nightmare a couple of weeks ago.
Adam L Silverman
@rikyrah: Someone has to make purses and shoes for Ivanka so she can proudly claim her products are made in the US.//
different-church-lady
@Adam L Silverman: How’s she doing with “democrats”?
Gin & Tonic
@M4: I’d commit a serious crime to get one of those fans.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
Wait, what? New cases over the 2,000 initially reported?
Adam L Silverman
@different-church-lady: I have no idea.
different-church-lady
@Mary G: TIRED: Hoods, electrodes, and wooden crates in Cuba
WIRED: Kids in cages here in the states.
Mary G
@JPL: I didn’t get all the way through. Had to stop at the jocular “We’ve got a whole orchestra here, all we need is a conductor.” My cat was upset, and I was horrified. I hope it gets to every network, preferably behind the picture of the toddler who’s crying and has no shoelaces in her shoes.
The Ancient Randonneur
@rikyrah: Interesting that the Feds are in a hurry to build these internment camps for kids ripped away from their parents but couldn’t build emergency relief shelters in PR.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@TenguPhule:
Chris Hayes has posted a ProPublica youtube of children crying for their parents in a detention facility. I lasted about thirty seconds. It’s seven minutes long. Every elected Republican should be forced to listen to that, on camera, then justify their cowardice.
ETA:
My god
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
I thought his fellow Nazi Kelly had taken one of those phones.
O. Felix Culpa
Reposting from below, as representative of any attempted conversation with a winger (ETA: the only thing missing is a reference to abortion):
TenguPhule
@The Ancient Randonneur:
They weren’t trying to kill people in those emergency relief shelters.
sdhays
@Adam L Silverman: That doesn’t mean that President Dumbass didn’t ask him for help anyway.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Samantha Bee spoke too soon.
different-church-lady
@O. Felix Culpa:
J R in WV
So the Republicans want to know
This is the easiest final exam question ever: Clintons and the members of their administration and campaign are not being prosecuted Because they didn’t ever commit a crime.
Unlike most or all Republicans.
TenguPhule
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
New cases or is this total including the prior ones formerly being held by by Border patrol.
Context is important here. I don’t want fly off the handle if these kids were already in the system because while its an outrage, its not a new and breaking outrage.
TenguPhule
@J R in WV:
Being a Clinton or working with a Clinton is a crime to Republicans.
gwangung
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Unfortunately, for some, it will be literally music to their ears.
efgoldman
@Jager:
Apparently they don’t have any in their houses.
How many RWNJs survived on federal subsidies (hello, Granny Starver) only to try and nuke them when they had power.
Hypocrisy is apparently a virtue for them
IGMFY fuck them all.
Wapiti
@rikyrah: I remember photos from years ago, of our service members in Iraq taking retinal scans of tribesmen at checkpoints. Like a fingerprint, I guess.
So we could do it, if we wanted to.
rikyrah
@TenguPhule:
Altogether
https://twitter.com/TheRickyDavila/status/1008788566598668291
rikyrah
@The Ancient Randonneur:
Why you gotta bring truth like this.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah: So HHS underreported their first number by 4,000 or so.
Still bad.
zhena gogolia
@JPL:
I can’t listen. I can’t do anything — I can’t concentrate on anything because this is so horrifying and I feel so helpless.
Jay
“As of now, the American media has not seized on this web of conspiracy and criminality, largely because it is hard to understand and even harder to report. At the moment, it is a white hot story in England, however, as it has more than adequately provided a smoking gun to prove Russian involvement in the Brexit campaign. But it’s a web that leads everywhere, including into Cambridge Analytica and the whole Facebook controversy, and including into the Trump campaign and the governor’s office in Mississippi.
It’s still unclear how instrumental George Cottrell’s July 22, 2016 arrest, seized phone and laptop, and cooperation with U.S. prosecutors has been or will be in unraveling this mess, but there’s a reason that his confederates went running to the Russian embassy to keep them abreast of the charges against him.
The main difference between Mueller’s investigation and the parliamentary inquiries in Britain is that we’re getting almost no information from Mueller. But’s it doubtful that Mueller doesn’t know as much or more than what parliament has learned. And I suspect a time will come when, one way or another, Mr. Cottrell will tell us his story.”
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2018/6/18/13554/7796
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: Nope.
TenguPhule
Via Wapo.
The Nazis are determined to die on this hill of human atrocities.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mary G:
I’m sure it’s a coincidence that Jethrene just postponed her appearance again. Apparently Nielsen is going to join her.
TenguPhule
Via Wapo.
Earth is so fucked.
JPL
@Mary G: I read that while waiting for Sarah, the reporters listened to it. I made it 3 minutes and had to stop and wipe my eyes.
O. Felix Culpa
@different-church-lady: Haha! That works and saves a lot of time.
James Powell
@Adam L Silverman:
No doubt she would argue that Kim Jong Un has done more to reach out to and understand Real Americans®
Tim C.
@Adam L Silverman: They can’t. They don’t run things any more. They did up until the moment the based realized the same things the smart guys did to rig the system (unlimited soft money, voter purges and above all else, gerrymandering) mean that the base voters run the show now. Likewise, if Fox News were the only game in town for the fascists and fellow travelers they might be able to get control of their moron base, but Alex Jones, Mike Drudge and the 1000 points of White Entitlement can now bypass Fox. This is going to get worse before it gets better. There will be an economic hammering no matter what now.
O. Felix Culpa
Alexandra Petri is en fuego.
Mnemosyne
D’oh! Wrong thread.
Adam L Silverman
@Jay: This was the backchannel.
Ask me no questions…
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule:
Adam L Silverman
@Tim C.: As I’ve said repeatedly: the only way out is through.
efgoldman
@TenguPhule:
I wouldn’t worry. If he’s as good at that as he is everything else,,,,
There won’t be any appropriations.
Ruckus
@germy:
One could label drudge as media, under the broadest brush but what drudge actually is, is propaganda.
Or if one is being crude, bullshit.
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
Isn’t his business losing at real estate investing?
J R in WV
@TenguPhule:
I don’t want an apology from Kirstjen Nielsen. I want her in jail for 12,000 counts of child abuse.
TenguPhule
@J R in WV:
Prison. Jail is pre-trial.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman: Well played.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: I just posted it, but it is quite good.
Also, there will be no “space force” because 1) we already have this covered with US Air Force’s Space Command and 2) it violates US treaty obligations, ratified by the Senate, to not militarize space. No one at the DOD is going to do anything on this other than pencil whip it from office to office.
Sherparick
@TenguPhule: I do expect oil & gas to kick-up, but the short term effect of the trade war will be to lower commodity prices for meat, grains, & soybeans as export markets are closed off to American farmers. Fruits & vegetables may go up because of the immigration policies will leave crops in the field.
Bard the Grim
@Adam L Silverman:
Dude, your apostrophetizationism is killing me. Verbs (“gets”) do not get apostrophes. And when you’re confused about “its” vs “it’s” (not here, but on many other occasions), think “his, hers, its”. It’s=It is. No need to thank me, I can read your mind.
Uncle Cosmo
@efgoldman: They’ve got lots of mirrors. They don’t have reflections. Vampires. Vultures. Vermin.
TenguPhule
@Sherparick:
If prices plummet below production costs, the farmers will destroy the produce and collect the insurance instead.
So prices may drop, but expect supplies to drop accordingly.
GregMulka
@Repatriated:
That’s fine. If it keeps the modular interior and gets close to 300 on a charge I’ll able to make space for the spawn and their friends and get up to Michigan’s Sunrise Side with a reasonable number of stops.
Tenar Arha
@Mary G: Yup, UGH.
It’s similar to today’s earlier resonance with “separate but equal” space force. I think the historically ignorant border patrol guy really thought he was cheering the kids up…but I still had to stop at that point before I completely lost it from the historical resonance with the orchestras at the camps like Auschwitz.
J R in WV
@TenguPhule:
“Prison. Jail is pre-trial.”
Gotta start there…