Menendez on Syria: A few troops isn't going to change the fact that we've outsourced our foreign policy to Russia. So, it may be an attempt by the president to cover his backside

https://twitter.com/ChadPergram/status/1186413471094771717

Trey Gowdy was caught in a flat-out lie that he was forced to cop to about Hillary's emails after the CIA directly contradicted him. Watch Elijah Cummings explain why Gowdy is still lying about what the purpose of the Benghazi committee is and what Gowdy's role in it is in the video above.



CIA Debunks Gowdy’s Allegation That Clinton Email Contained Classified CIA Source
Oct 18, 2015 Press Release
Cummings Calls on Gowdy to Apologize to Clinton

WASHINGTON—Today, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, the Ranking Member of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, sent a letter to Chairman Trey Gowdy to correct the public record after the CIA debunked Chairman Gowdy’s accusation that Secretary Clinton sent an email containing "some of the most protected information in our intelligence community, the release of which could jeopardize not only national security but human lives.”

The full letter is online here and as follows:

.............

FROM:
Oct 18, 2015 Press Release

...........

In your letter on October 7, 2015, you stated that Secretary Clinton received an email from Sidney Blumenthal on March 18, 2011, that included the name of someone who purportedly provided information to the CIA. You asserted that this information was classified, arguing that Secretary Clinton “received classified information from Blumenthal—information she should have known was classified at the time she received it.” You then alleged:

Armed with that information, Secretary Clinton forwarded that email to a colleague—debunking her claim that she never sent any classified information from her private email address.

In your letter, you went to great lengths to highlight the gravity of your accusation, stating:

This information, the name of a human source, is some of the most protected information in our intelligence community, the release of which could jeopardize not only national security but human lives.

To further inflate your claim, you placed your own redactions over the name of the individual with the words, “redacted due to sources and methods.” To be clear, these redactions were not made, and these words were not added, by any agency of the federal government responsible for enforcing classification guidelines.

Predictably, commentators began repeating your accusations in even more extreme terms, suggesting in headlines for example that “Clinton Burns CIA Libya Contact.”

Contrary to your claims, the CIA yesterday informed both the Republican and Democratic staffs of the Select Committee that they do not consider the information you highlighted in your letter to be classified. Specifically, the CIA confirmed that “the State Department consulted with the CIA on this production, the CIA reviewed these documents, and the CIA made no redactions to protect classified information.”

Unfortunately, you sent your letter on October 7 without checking first with the CIA. Now that we have done so, we have learned that your accusations were incorrect.

As a result of your actions, the State Department yesterday asked the Select Committee not to reveal the individual’s name publicly, not for classification reasons, but to protect the individual’s privacy and avoid bringing additional undue attention to this person.

Unfortunately, the standard operating procedure of this Select Committee has become to put out information publicly that is inaccurate and out of context in order to attack Secretary Clinton for political reasons. These repeated actions bring discredit on this investigation and undermine the integrity of the Select Committee and the House of Representatives.



Sincerely,



Elijah E. Cummings
Ranking Member


Letter Here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20170112003429/http://democrats-benghazi.house.gov/news/press-releases/cia-debunks-gowdy-s-allegation-that-clinton-email-contained-classified-cia

Nothing that was in the email was classified.
Gowdy lied.

[A]ccording to committee correspondence reviewed by Newsweek, the CIA did tell the [Benghazi] panel on Saturday that it had reviewed 127 emails between Clinton and her close friend and outside adviser, Sidney Blumenthal, and none of it was deemed classified. “The CIA reviewed the material in question and informed State that it required no redactions,” the agency informed Susan Sachsman Grooms, staff director and general counsel for the panel’s Democrats, on October 17. [My emphasis]

https://www.newsweek.com/another-bad-day-benghazi-panel-384592

https://archives-benghazi-republicans-oversight.house.gov/sites/republicans.benghazi.house.gov/files/Gowdy%20to%20EEC%2010.18.15.pdf

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The 30-foot-high ad features a Trump look-alike being trussed up with red, white and blue rope as the vet steps on his face. The ad was unveiled in Manhattan last week by Portland-based clothing company Dhvani.

Dhvani called the ad “metaphorical,” adding on Twitter that it “does NOT and will NEVER condone violence of ANY KIND.” It’s intended to “artistically express the frustrations we believe many women share,” the statement added.

Specifically, it’s an attack on the Trump administration’s blocking federal funds to Planned Parenthood health providers who refer patients for abortions, Dhvani CEO and founder Avi Brown told The Associated Press.

“We are on the right side of history,” Brown declared. “The billboard is an expression of our First Amendment right. Its art is a symbol ... This is about taking our country back.”


https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dhvani-trump-times-square-female-marine-vet_n_5dacfa2be4b08cfcc31dbc1f?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067

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This is the most damning photo in a stream of very damning photos. The grifters really appear to have been part of Trump entire legal team.

On March 25, the day after Barr released a summary of the Mueller report, Parnas posted photos from what he called a celebratory dinner with the Trump legal team at Trump's hotel in DC.



https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1186256038212845568


UPDATE:

So the day after Mueller’s testimony seemingly closed his investigation once and for all, Trump got on the phone and extorted Zelensky to provide disinformation undercutting Mueller’s investigation, at the very least (though I think there’s more he was after) the black ledger.

But a WSJ piece on Lev Parnas’ private Instagram account provides another.



It reveals that Ukraine grifter Lev Parnas attended the celebration dinner Trump’s legal team had the day after Bill Barr released a summary about the Mueller Report that was, itself, disinformation. It shows that Parnas, at least, suggested Trump’s legal team deserved some kind of credit for Barr’s roll-out. And it claims that Ukrainian grifter and Trump’s legal team were hard at work moving (and includes notes in the picture that might reveal what Parnas and friends had planned).

So Barr announces the false results of the Mueller investigation and the next day someone involved in the production of disinformation claims credit and looks forward to his next task.

And Mueller provides what Trump claims to be an “incompetent performance” in the House, and the next day Trump extorts a foreign leader for disinformation that Rudy has been concocting with the Ukrainian grifter all summer.


https://www.emptywheel.net/2019/10/21/rudys-disinformation-campaign-ties-directly-with-key-milestones-in-the-mueller-investigation/

I guess this is what Trump meant by securing the oil.

Speaking with reporters in Kabul, U.S. Defense Secretary Esper says there are discussions about keeping some troops in northeastern Syria near oil fields with SDF forces to deny Islamic State and "others" potential revenue from them.


https://twitter.com/jonathanvswan/status/1186235700821274624

This is how it looks like when someone brings dishonor to our nation while hiding behind a fake slogan. “Make America Great Again,” is nothing but a refuge of the scoundrel.


VIDEO:
https://twitter.com/Ali_H_Soufan/status/1186240825413554176

Flitting above this chaotic landscape — fomenting, provoking, preening, spewing, tweeting, blustering and bullying — is President Donald Trump, the worst, most dangerous president in modern history.

...........

We need not explain here why Trump is temperamentally unsuited to be president — we have said it many times, including in our 2017 series “Our Dishonest President,” and we say it again today in a separate article.

Suffice to say, the country is in the hands of a president for whom everything is transactional, for whom anything and anyone can be bought and sold. Lies, threats and empty promises are his weapons of choice; enemies are mocked and belittled while the dumbly obedient are rewarded. Ignorant and incurious, unmoved by reasoned argument, contemptuous of laws and institutions, Trump is in thrall to exactly the special interests you would expect, he is schooled at the university of Fox News, he is on a constant search for adulation and short-term advantage. He must be defeated in November 2020.
https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-ed-our-dishonest-president/
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-10-20/trump-failures-outrages

...............

Now is no time to watch from the sidelines.

This debate between the progressives and the moderates is an important one; by all means, let’s have it. But on two issues, we hope the candidates will agree: first, that the top priority has to be defeating the incumbent, who is too irresponsible to be allowed another term; and second, that his defeat is only a first step. Even before Trump was elected, the country was divided and the old system wasn’t working. Political paralysis was already on the rise well before November 2016, symbolized by repeated government shutdowns, angry and bruising Supreme Court nomination battles, the gradual disappearance of moderate Democrats and Republicans, the decline of bipartisanship and the rise of incivility and rejectionism. Something needs to change. Anyone who is not convinced of that should just remember the name Merrick Garland.

..............


Now is no time to watch from the sidelines. Voters must become engaged, learn the issues, choose sides, speak out. Removing Donald Trump from office in November 2020 is absolutely essential — and yet it is by no means a sure thing. So do not sit this one out. Join in, and make America America again.


The rest:
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-10-20/beating-donald-trump-the-2020-election

Rob Reiner ✔ @robreiner

If you have eyes & ears, you have known for a very long time that Donald Trump is a Criminal who has committed innumerable Impeachable offenses. Elected members of the GOP have eyes & ears. Now they just need balls.

47.2K

12:44 PM - Oct 19, 2019

https://twitter.com/robreiner/status/1185612805359063042

https://twitter.com/ScottMStedman/status/1186063412666568705