November 28, 2019

Martin O'Malley just drove Ken Cuccinelli out of the Dubliner in DC

https://twitter.com/siobhanphilly/status/1199838534573658113
A liberal ex-governor walks into a bar, followed by a conservative Trump administration official.

Instead of a punchline, what followed, one witness said, was a “shame-invoking tirade” by Martin O’Malley, the former Democratic governor of Maryland, directed at Ken Cuccinelli II, the former Virginia attorney general who is acting deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

The two political polar opposites crossed paths Wednesday night at the Dubliner, a Capitol Hill Irish pub popular on Thanksgiving Eve with Gonzaga College High School graduates. Both men attended the school, graduating five years apart in the 1980s.

Siobhan Arnold, who was visiting from Philadelphia, had just met O’Malley at the bar when Cuccinelli walked in. Soon the two men were face-to-face, she said, with O’Malley excoriating Cuccinelli over the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/ken-cuccinelli-walked-into-a-bar-and-martin-omalley-lit-into-him/2019/11/28/8277421c-1191-11ea-b0fc-62cc38411ebb_story.html

November 25, 2019

Giuliani associate wants to testify that Nunes aides hid Ukraine meetings on Biden dirt from Schiff

Source: CNBC

WASHINGTON – The lawyer for an indicted business associate of Rudy Giuliani said his client is prepared to testify under oath that aides to Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, scrapped a trip to Ukraine this year when they realized it would mean notifying Democratic Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff.

Lev Parnas would tell Congress that the purpose of the planned trip was to interview two Ukrainian prosecutors who claim to have evidence that could help President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, Parnas’ attorney, Joseph Bondy, told CNBC. Nunes is one of Trump’s most outspoken defenders in Congress. Giuliani is one of the president’s personal lawyers.

But when Nunes’ staff realized that going to Ukraine themselves would mean alerting Schiff to their plans, they instead asked Parnas to set up the meetings for them over phone and Skype, which he did, according to Bondy.

The Intelligence Committee is leading the House’s impeachment inquiry into Trump. It wrapped up two weeks of public hearings Thursday during which several Trump administration officials described a pressure campaign to influence Ukraine into saying it would investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, the frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, and a discredited conspiracy theory regarding the 2016 election.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/24/giuliani-ally-would-testify-that-nunes-staffers-hid-ukraine-meetings-from-schiff.html

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Drip...drip...drip...

October 9, 2019

Trump Casino in Las Vegas

https://twitter.com/PaulLidicul/status/1181987508202041344

October 3, 2019

Trump raised Biden with Xi in June call housed in highly secure server

Source: CNN

Washington (CNN)When President Donald Trump suggested — without prompting — that China should investigate Joe Biden and his son, he thrust another political grudge into what was already the world's most complicated and consequential relationship.

The move startled Chinese officials, who say they have little interest in becoming embroiled in a US political controversy. And it amounted to the latest extraordinary effort by Trump to openly request political assistance from foreign governments.

Thursday's comments weren't the first time Trump has injected Biden into his relationship with China, though he said Thursday he has never pushed Xi to investigate the former vice president. Nor is it the first time he has sought to trade favors with Xi, who this week celebrated the 70th birthday of his ruling communist party with a note of congratulations from Trump.

During a phone call with Xi on June 18, Trump raised Biden's political prospects as well as those of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who by then had started rising in the polls, according to two people familiar with the discussion. In that call, Trump also told Xi he would remain quiet on Hong Kong protests as trade talks progressed.




Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/03/politics/trump-biden-call-xi-secure-server/index.html

October 3, 2019

Guiliani confirms IG Docs originated with him

https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1179550403802861573

September 30, 2019

Former Ukraine prosecutor says he saw no evidence of wrongdoing by Biden

KYIV, Ukraine —

Ukraine’s former top law enforcement official says he repeatedly rebuffed demands by President Trump’s personal lawyer to investigate Joe Biden and his son, insisting he had seen no evidence of wrongdoing that he could pursue.

In an interview, Yuri Lutsenko said while he was Ukraine’s prosecutor general he told Rudolph W. Giuliani that he would be happy to cooperate if the FBI or other U.S. authorities began their own investigation of the former vice president and his son Hunter but insisted they had not broken any Ukrainian laws to his knowledge.

Lutsenko, who was fired as prosecutor general last month, said he had urged Giuliani to launch a U.S. inquiry and go to court if he had any evidence but not to use Ukraine to conduct a political vendetta that could affect the U.S. election.

“I said, ‘Let’s put this through prosecutors, not through presidents,’ ” Lutsenko told The Times.

“I told him I could not start an investigation just for the interests of an American official,” he said.


https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-09-29/former-ukraine-prosecutor-says-no-wrongdoing-biden

September 28, 2019

Volker plans to appear before House Foreign Affairs Committee next week

Source: CNN

(CNN) - Former US Special Envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker plans to appear at his deposition next Thursday in front of the House Foreign Affairs committee, according to a source familiar with his plans.
The source would not say if the White House is seeking to use executive privilege to constrict Volker in terms of what he can say or provide.
Volker's appearance before the committee was announced just hours before the news broke Friday evening that he had resigned.
Volker didn't offer a comment when contacted Saturday by CNN.

The former US special envoy is expected to face tough questioning after finding himself in the middle of the controversy surrounding the intelligence whistleblower who had alleged a coverup by the White House over a call made by President Donald Trump to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. That whistleblower also mentioned Volker's name in his complaint when discussing interactions between himself and Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, concerning pushing Ukraine to look into activities of Joe Biden's son, Hunter.
There is no evidence of wrongdoing by Joe or Hunter Biden.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/28/politics/kurt-volker-house-foreign-affairs-committee/index.html

September 9, 2019

Natasha Bertrand

From Politico just posted this on Twitter. Stand by for breaking news...

https://twitter.com/natashabertrand/status/1170869160118804480?s=21

August 26, 2019

A man threatened to bring an AR-15 rifle to a Maine Walmart.

Source: Bangor Daily News

A New York woman last week tipped off Maine authorities to an armed felon police say could have been targeting a local Walmart. Police say the tip fueled a fast-moving investigation from multiple law enforcement agencies that may have stopped Jeremy Hugh Rogers, 25, from becoming the next mass shooter.

“He was prepared for something,” Officer Elizabeth Hart of the Thomaston Police Department said. “We’re not sure what, exactly.”

Rogers, of Norwalk, Connecticut, is charged with terrorizing, terrorizing with a deadly weapon and possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited person. In October 2016, he was convicted in Connecticut on firearms and child endangerment charges — both felonies.

While searching for Rogers on Wednesday night, Maine police closed and evacuated the Walmart in Thomaston where officers believe he may have been heading. Rogers, who was eventually detained outside a Rockport residence Thursday, made his initial court appearance on Friday in Knox County Court in Rockland. He remains in jail on $50,000 cash bail.

Read more: https://bangordailynews.com/2019/08/26/news/midcoast/a-man-threatened-to-bring-an-ar-15-rifle-to-a-maine-walmart-police-say-they-might-have-stopped-the-next-mass-shooter/?ref=most-popular

August 26, 2019

U.S. Lobster Exports to China Freefalling Amid Trade Dispute

Lobster exports out of Maine are free-falling this year as a result of trade hostilities between the United States and lobster-hungry China, the Associated Press reports. The country, which has become a huge customer for the U.S. lobster industry, issued tariffs on many food products in July 2018, including American lobsters. The higher cost has pushed Chinese customers to look farther north for the coveted crustacean. Now, lobstermen in Canada, who catch the same species of lobster as American suppliers, are profiting off the slack. Canada’s lobster exports neared $200 million through June, while America’s exports through June were valued at less than $19 million—over $70 million less than the previous year. Despite sustained domestic demand, the Chinese tariffs have taken a toll on lobster businesses in Maine, forcing some to lay off workers working in wholesale. “China is so large that you have to look at a number of new markets to replace that business,” said Marianne LaCroix, Executive Director of the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/us-lobster-exports-to-china-freefalling-amid-trade-dispute?ref=home