Sunday, September 1, 2019

Hurricane Dorian a Category 5

Hurricane Dorian a Category 5 storm 
as it slams into the Bahamas
Hurricane Dorian fast facts:
As of 8 p.m. ET Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said Dorian was a Category 5 storm bearing down on the Bahamas.
Forecasts say Dorian may spare the U.S. coast a direct hit, but will move close to Florida's east coast late Monday.
Dorian is expected to affect the South Carolina coast Wednesday or Thursday.
States of emergency were in effect for all of Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina, along with 12 counties in Georgia.
Mandatory evacuations were underway in some parts of Florida.
Evacuations in coastal South Carolina will begin Monday.
Hurricane Dorian strengthened into a powerful Category 5 storm as it slammed into the Bahamas Sunday. According to The Associated Press, Dorian tied the record for the most powerful Atlantic hurricane ever to come ashore in the Bahamas, equaling the Labor Day hurricane of 1935, before the storms were named.
Its maximum sustained winds of 185 mph ripped off roofs, overturned cars and tore down power lines as hundreds hunkered down in schools, churches and shelters.
More than 20 million Americans could feel the storm's impact within a few days. 
Preparations were underway for the massive storm across the southeastern U.S. seaboard. The hurricane was already churning into parts of the northwestern Bahamas Sunday morning. Storm surges there could raise water levels 20-feet above normal.
Acting DHS chief Kevin McAleenan said Sunday that the storm could remain just off shore of the U.S. mainland, but that it could still cause major problems with high wind speeds, a devastating storm surge and a lot of rain.
As of 8 p.m. ET Sunday, Dorian's center was hovering over Great Abaco and Grand Bahama islands and about 155 miles east of West Palm Beach, Florida, the National Hurricane Center said. The storm was moving west at about 5 mph.
Follow live coverage of the storm below:
Port Canaveral to close Monday
Authorities announced that Port Canaveral in Florida would be closing at 8 a.m. on Monday due to "Zulu" hurricane conditions. The distinction, issued by the Coast Guard, means that the port may experience hurricane-force winds within 12 hours.
Port Canaveral is located approximately 45 miles east of Orlando and is considered to be the world's second-busiest port for cruises that offer "multi-day embarkations," according to the port's website.
More than 600 flights canceled
According to The Associated Press, more than 600 U.S. flights have been canceled for Monday as the nation prepares for Hurricane Dorian. Nearly half of those flights concerned routes either arriving or departing from Florida airports.
Cancellations also impacted North Carolina, Georgia, Maryland and other states. Approximately 336 flights were canceled for Sunday alone.
South Carolina governor orders thousands evacuated
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster on Sunday ordered mandatory evacuations across the state, impacting an estimated 830,000 people. The evacuations will begin at noon on Monday and include seven counties: Beaufort, Berkeley, Charleston, Colleton, Dorchester, Horry and Jasper.
Those counties will also experience school and government building closures on Tuesday. To ensure speedy evacuations, officials are reversing the flow of traffic on major highways.
"We do not want people to be stuck on the highway," McMaster said during a Sunday press conference.
Abaco Islands report "catastrophic conditions"
"Catastrophic conditions" were reported in The Abaco Islands, according to The Associated Press, with a storm surge of up to 23 feet due to Hurricane Dorian, prompting residents to board up their homes and hotels to close. Officials commissioned boats to help ferry residents to bigger islands in the Bahamas.
Already, Dorian had damaged roofs, downed power lines and overturned vehicles in addition to unleashing floodwaters. Prime Minister Hubert Minnis told AP that some areas have flooded so intensely that "you cannot tell the difference as to the beginning of the street versus where the ocean begins."
"Dorian's fury now aiming toward Grand Bahama," NHC reports
The National Hurricane Center issued a 5 p.m. ET advisory on Sunday warning that Hurricane Dorian's "fury" had taken aim at Grand Bahama, the northernmost island in the country and one of its largest. The storm's movement slowed to 5 mph, though its maximum sustained winds remain at 185 mph.
Its intensity has prompted the NHC to issue new alerts for areas around Florida's east coast, including a Hurricane Warning extending from Jupiter Inlet to the Volusia/Brevard County Line. A Hurricane Watch has also been issued from the Volusia/Brevard County Line to the Flagler/Volusia County Line.
Palm Beach International Airport has canceled all its commercial flights scheduled for Monday in response to Hurricane Dorian.
Bahamas official calls Hurricane Dorian "situation that is hard to describe"
Joy Jibrilu, director general of the Bahamas ministry of tourism, told CBSN's Elaine Quijano that Hurricane Dorian is causing "deteriorating conditions with sea surges, buildings already losing roofs and a situation that is hard to describe." There is expected storm surge between 18 to 23 feet on the Bahamas, forecasters said and the surge will be accompanied by large and destructive waves.
"The Bahamas have been very proud of the fact that it was deeply prepared for hurricanes," she added. "We have been experiencing them more than we have liked, but I don't think anyone expected a hurricane of this intensity."
Jibrilu said the Bahamas have experienced wind gusts of more than 200 mph.
"We will only be able to assess the impact of the storm once it has moved off and we're able to see the extent of damage to Abaco and Grand Bahama," she told CBSN. "Abaco and Grand Bahama are surrounded by keys and are stunningly beautiful -- keys are very small islands -- we really pleaded with people to evacuate especially tourists," Jibrilu said. "The government has done a stellar job in getting people off the keys, low-lying areas, close to the areas prone to flooding ... and getting them into hurricane shelters."
Florida braces for Dorian
As Dorian appeared to track northward, Floridians wondered whether to breathe a sigh of relief. But as CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann reported, after days of dire warnings, hurried preparations and last-minute stockpiling, coastal residents knew better on Sunday than to completely relax.
Dorian's heavy winds and coastal flooding were still potential threats.
As Strassmann reported, even if Dorian's physical damage ends up being less than expected, its menace has already been costly: businesses lost millions when tourists fled right before Labor Day weekend, leaving empty beaches. Airport closures and cancelled flights will prolong the losses into the week ahead.
Utility crews from further north were already on their way to Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas to help with any power outages.
Video taken from aboard the International Space Station on Sunday afternoon showed the daunting scale of Hurricane Dorian as it enveloped the Bahamas as a devastating Category 5 storm.
Cameras on the outside of the ISS shot the video as the station orbited over the Caribbean, showing it as a clearly defined circular mass of clouds, swirling around a large eye.
Dorian makes landfall in Bahamas
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Sunday that Dorian made landfall in Elbow Cay at 12:40 p.m. ET.
Maximum sustained winds have increased to a monstrous 185 mph. The Hurricane Center said the arrival of the storm posed "a life-threatening situation" with hazards that would cause "extreme destruction."
Wind gusts were clocked at over 220 mph. The storm surge was measured at between 18 to 23 feet above normal tide levels.
Trump briefed on Dorian
Ken Graham, director of the National Hurricane Center, told President Trump and other senior U.S. officials today via a live web link that Hurricane Dorian was a "textbook case of a very powerful hurricane."
He warned that the storm was so large that it could wreak significant damage even far from its eye.
"The big question," Graham said, was where the storm actual ends up turning to the east, out into the Atlantic, as it heads north along the U.S. coast.
"We're gonna be dealing with this hurricane, really all week," he said, predicting widespread storm surge and rainfall over eight inches in some places.
Graham said there was still "so much uncertainty" over the forecast track because even a tiny variance in the storm's behavior could change it's path significantly.
Catastrophic conditions in the Bahamas
The National Hurricane Center said Dorian became the strongest hurricane in modern records to hit the northwestern Bahamas on Sunday.
The center warned that catastrophic conditions were occurring in the Abaco Islands, in the Bahamas, as the storm moved slowly to the west.
Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said Sunday was "the saddest day of my life."
Trump urges Southeast to "BE CAREFUL!"
After retweeting a series of advisories from the National Hurricane Center and other accounts on Sunday morning, President Trump sent a more personal message to residents of the Southeast: Be careful.
He said Hurricane Dorian appeared to be heading to Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, and that it could "hit (much) harder than anticipated. Looking like one of the largest hurricanes ever."
"BE CAREFUL!" Mr. Trump urged, adding simply, "GOD BLESS EVERYONE!"
DHS chief says Dorian might stay off U.S. coast
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan told CBS News "Face the Nation" moderator Margaret Brennan on Sunday that the monster hurricane churning in the Caribbean could remain just off the coast of the United States, but he warned it could still cause major problems.
"Most models show it holding for over 24 hours (over the Bahamas) before it starts moving in a northerly direction and staying most likely offshore of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina," McAleenan said.
"That does not mean there's not going to be significant impacts from the storm where you expect to see hurricane force winds lashing the coastline of Florida as soon as Tuesday," he added, noting that storm surge was expected to pose a major threat and there could also be "a prolonged rain event as the storm makes its way north."
McAleenan said he was "regularly" briefing President Trump on the storm, and that he expected to do so again, along with other key cabinet members, later Sunday morning.
The acting DHS chief also defended the Trump administration's decision to divert millions in disaster relief funds to the southern border for immigration enforcement as his agency prepares to respond to the powerful storm.
In an interview Sunday on "Face the Nation," Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said that the expected transfer of more than $155 million funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would have "no impact" on his department's response to the hurricane.
Palm Beach County evacuations ordered
Palm Beach County, Florida authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders on Sunday morning as Hurricane Dorian churned toward the state's east coast as a potentially devastating Category 5 storm.
In an alert sent to residents, officials said anyone living in the county's designated "Zones A or B" should leave immediately.
The two zones include people living in mobile or" sub-standard housing," and low-lying areas prone to flooding. It also includes the barrier islands, land areas north and south of the Jupiter Inlet, and other areas vulnerable to storm surge south along the Intracoastal Waterway to the Broward County line.
Dorian could stall over Bahamas
Weather forecasters said early Sunday that if Hurricane Dorian slowed to a crawl over the Bahamas as predicted later in the day, it could complicate their outlook for the southeastern U.S. coastline.
The National Hurricane Center said Dorian could nearly stall over Great Abaco Island or Grand Bahama Island for more than 24 hours late Sunday. Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham said that would be catastrophic for the island chain.
Forecasters say ocean levels could rise up to 20 feet in parts of the northern Bahamas with the storm surge topped with huge waves.
With reporting from The Associated Press.
Now-Category 5, Dorian roars toward Bahamas
Dorian grew into a huge Category 5 storm early Sunday morning, set to rake over the Bahamas with potentially devastating 160-mile-per hour sustained winds and gusts even higher.
The National Hurricane Center warned that the Bahamas would feel the fury of the storm within just hours, and while fluctuations in Dorian's intensity were expected, it was likely "to remain a powerful hurricane during the next few days" as it barrels north toward Georgia and the Carolina coasts.
"Significant impacts could also occur even if the center of #Dorian stays offshore," the Hurricane Center said, adding that "the risk of strong winds and life-threatening storm surge is increasing along the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina during the middle of next week."
Orlando Airport lifts planned Monday closure
Orlando International Airport issued a statement on Saturday announcing it had lifted its plan to close on Monday, September 2 and will continue normal operations.
"The airport's Emergency Operations Center will continue 24 hour a day monitoring of Hurricane Dorian and airport leaders will work with industry partners to determine if any further adjustments to airport operations plans are necessary," a statement issued by Orlando Airport noted.
What supplies do you need to prepare?
The National Weather Service is encouraging anyone in the path of the storm that it's "never too early" to start preparing a hurricane kit. CBS News has rounded up some emergency preparedness tips for people and pets, as well as a checklist of supplies to have on hand before a big storm arrives. Ahead of potentially devastating storms this hurricane season, the Red Cross recommends having several supplies including, a flashlight, batteries, first aid kit, medications, a multi-purpose tool and an emergency blanket.
NOAA radar shows eye of Hurricane Dorian
The NOAA Hurricane Hunters released an image Saturday evening showing the eye of Hurricane Dorian. The National Hurricane Center reaffirmed its Category 4 status at the time.
Florida "not out of the woods," DeSantis said
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis encouraged residents, especially those on the east coast of the state, to "remain vigilant" as Hurricane Dorian continues making its way west."We're not out of the woods yet," DeSantis said during a Saturday evening press conference.
"So our posture here is we're encouraged by the last 24 hours... but we're also preparing for the fact that that cone of uncertainty still includes a lot of areas on the east coast of Florida and even into central and northern Florida."
During a Sunday press conference, DeSantis encouraged those in evacuation zones to "heed that call."
"This storm at this magnitude could really cause massive destruction," DeSantis said. "Do not put your life in jeopardy by staying behind when you have a chance to get out."
​Pets evacuated from South Carolina coast are up for adoption
Officials at a northern South Carolina humane society say hundreds of pets are up for adoption after being evacuated from facilities along the coast, CBS affiliate WSPA reported. The Greenville Humane Society now has more than 200 animals up for adoption and officials said they're in need of volunteers.
"Its very hard on our staff and our staff absolutely love these animals and it can be stressful for the animals as well," said Rachel Delport, who works at the center in Greenville.
Trump meets with FEMA officials at Camp David
President Trump on Saturday met with FEMA officials at Camp David to discuss the response to Hurricane Dorian. Mr. Trump canceled a weekend visit to Poland to plan for the potentially catastrophic storm that could affect more than 20 million Americans.
Mr. Trump briefly left Camp David to visit Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, on Saturday morning, according to pool reports. He returned to the presidential retreat Saturday afternoon.
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said the president has been briefed hourly on the storm and that he "participated in several phone calls." When asked about a video posted by The Hill claiming to show Mr. Trump golfing, Grisham said, "I have no idea what that video is."
Mr. Trump on Saturday retweeted several tweets by the National Hurricane Center, FEMA and the American Red Cross providing information about the storm. He also warned in a tweet that South Carolina "could get hit MUCH harder than first thought."
Meet NOAA's first all-female hurricane hunting crew
While Hurricane Dorian makes its way toward the Florida coast, not everyone is fleeing the fierce storm. Commander Rebecca Waddington, Lieutenant Lindsey Norman and Captain Kristie Twining flew into the eye of the storm this week.
Their hurricane hunter aircraft collects data for NOAA, which helps forecasters predict where the storm is heading next. But their flight Thursday was historic. It was the first time in NOAA's history that a Hurricane Hunter's flight crew was comprised of all women.
"There are more women getting interested in flying and it's also fun to have that camaraderie because to be honest it's been a male-dominated field," Captain Kristie Twining said.
Twining hopes they will inspire a new generation of female pilots.
"To let them know this is something that is certainly a possibility for them and they don't have to feel intimidated or in anyway think that they cannot do it," Twining said.
"People think you're a little bit nuts, but when you tell him why we're going out and doing this, going out and collecting all of this really important data, then people are usually really grateful for what you're doing," Norman said.
-- Dana Jacobson reports
© 2019 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
at

A Chance at Exoneration for Michael Flynn?



A new motion by the former national security advisor’s attorney threatens to explode the government’s case.

Michael Flynn’s new attorney, Sidney Powell, filed a motion on Friday formally accusing the government of hiding information that a judge ordered to be released in early 2018.

Powell’s motion came the same day the parties filed a status report that laid bare the breakdown between the parties. Flynn worked in the Trump transition effort after the election and briefly served in his administration as national security advisor. Flynn’s guilty plea in November 2017 for lying to federal investigators appeared to be an early victory for Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team.

Judge Emmet Sullivan then ordered the special counsel’s office to produce “evidence [that] is material either to guilt or to punishment” ahead of Flynn’s sentencing. What followed was a seemingly interminable series of delays and continuances that puzzled the public as both parties seemed unable or unwilling to complete the Flynn plea agreement.
Why has the gap between this order and the sentencing which has yet to occur already been 18 months? The answer may lie in the incestuous relationships among the get-Trump forces that coalesced in the summer of 2016.

The Setup

A little background, first. Flynn was ambushed by a surprise interview on January 24, 2017, in which he was asked about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition. The purpose of the interview was not to find out what Flynn said in those conversations because the government already possessed audio recordings of them. The government has since refused to turn over the recordings and transcripts to the defense in apparent contravention of the February order. It seems strange that the transcript that “proves” he lied is somehow not relevant to the judge’s order to the government to furnish all evidence of Flynn’s guilt and innocence. Shouldn’t a defendant be permitted to listen to the conversation he is alleged to have lied about before agreeing that he lied? 
Because of the contradiction between what Flynn said in the interview and what he allegedly said on the secret tapes, he chose to plead guilty. His plea agreement required Flynn to admit he “impeded” the government investigation by making false statements to the interviewing agents. Flynn admitted he told the FBI agents that he did not ask the Russian ambassador to “refrain from escalating the situation” in response to December 28, 2016 sanctions imposed by the departing Obama Administration. He also told interviewers he did not recall a follow-up conversation with the Russian ambassador.

The plea agreement called for Flynn to agree that both statements were untrue.

Keep in mind, the conversation between Flynn and the ambassador had nothing to do with the election and has never been charged as illegal conduct. By the time the conversation took place, Donald Trump was the president-elect and, in less than a month after the conversation, would be in charge of U.S. foreign policy.

Requesting Russian forbearance from retaliation pending the change in leadership is a perfectly legitimate request for a newly elected administration and consistent with U.S. interests. One might compare it to Hillary Clinton’s desire to “reset” relations with Russia as a way to make a fresh start with the new Obama administration.

Even the FBI concluded that Flynn did nothing wrong in his conversations with the Russian ambassador. The FBI interview was not intended to investigate anything. It was just a trap to catch Flynn in a factual discrepancy.

Judge Rudolph Contreras accepted Flynn’s plea on November 30, 2017. Since then, information has dribbled out that steadily eroded public confidence in the operation to ensnare Flynn. Here is a partial list:


The Text Messages

If you follow the Trump-Russia collusion case, you know that one of the agents who questioned Flynn during that fateful January 2017 interview was none other than disgraced former FBI agent Peter Strzok. Strzok’s evidence against Flynn would have been indispensable to reach a conviction at a trial. Yet Strzok is now known to have expressed extreme bias and animus against the incoming Trump Administration. As I noted elsewhere,  ABC Newsreported on August 16, 201,7 that Strzok left the Mueller team. But we didn’t know why at the time.

We learned the reason on December 2, 2017: “the transfer followed the discovery of text messages in which Mr. Strozk and a colleague reacted …in ways that could appear critical of Mr. Trump.”

Again, the story about Strzok’s texts broke just two days after Flynn entered his plea. These texts could have been devastating in cross-examination of Strzok if Flynn’s attorneys had known about them before agreeing to waive his right to a trial. Did the government tell Flynn about the discovery of the infamous Strzok-Page texts before he entered his plea? It appears not.

Powell’s motion complains that the government failed to “disclose the FBI Agent Strozk had been fired from the Special Counsel team as its lead agent,” and has continued to withhold some of the content of these texts in spite of the order to produce.


The Gap in the Recovered Text Messages

The Strzok-Page text messages contained a critical gap between December 15, 2016, and May 17, 2017. One does not have to be a conspiracy theorist to note that this gap coincides with the critical months between the immediate aftermath of the 2016 election and the appointment of the special counsel. It also includes the period when Strzok interviewed Flynn.

Recall that Mueller removed Strzok from his team in August 2017. We learned in a subsequent Justice Department inspector general’s report that the “DOJ issued iPhone previously assigned to Strzok had been re-issued to another FBI agent following Strzok’s departure from the SCO. The SCO obtained the iPhone from that individual and provided it to the OIG. OIG’s Cyber Investigations obtained a forensic extraction of the iPhone previously assigned to Strzok; however, this iPhone had been reset to factory settings and was reconfigured for the new user to whom the device was issued. It did not contain data related to Strzok’s use of the device.” This in spite of the fact that a member of the special counsel’s office “reviewed Strzok’s DoJ issued iPhone . . . and determined it contained no substantive text messages.” Based upon the long history of Strzok and Page exchanging text messages about their effort to “stop” Donald Trump, it’s simply not credible that there were no “substantive” text messages on the Strzok phone before it was wiped.

To complete the circle, we learned in the same OIG report, that the Page phone texts were similarly lost to a “reset to factory settings on July 31, 2017.” Page’s phone, unlike Strzok’s, was not reviewed for substantive texts. The FBI and the inspector general nevertheless have reassured the public, “the content of text messages exchanged between Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page did not appear to be a factor in their collection, or lack thereof. Further, the OIG did not find that the gaps in the collection were intentional on the part of the FBI or any FBI personnel.”

But the inspector general’s report does not explain why the special counsel office would bother reviewing Strzok’s phone if not to collect and preserve information relevant to the work Strzok did on the Russia collusion investigation. But we know from the inspector general’s findings that the special counsel’s office did review Strzok’s phone before returning it to be deleted and chose not to save any of the texts.

Powell’s motion specifically complains about this lapse leading one to infer that the government failed to disclose the loss of these texts to Flynn before he entered his plea.


Agents at the Time Didn’t Think Flynn Lied 

In order for Flynn to be guilty of a crime, he must have intended to lie to interviewing agents. In March 2017, Comey told members of Congress that, “the FBI agents who interviewed Flynn did not believe Flynn had lied, or that any inaccuracies in Flynn’s answers were intentional.” Was that information turned over to Flynn before he pleaded guilty?

But there’s another element to the offense that, though often overlooked, is nevertheless essential to charge somebody with lying to the FBI: The person speaking to the FBI must understand that the interview is a “matter within the jurisdiction of” the FBI—i.e., part of an investigation.

Lying to an FBI agent about something not under investigation is not a crime. Otherwise, you could go to jail for telling an agent, “No, those jeans don’t make you look fat.” Thus, it’s critical to know what Flynn was told about why the FBI agents were there to speak with him. To prove this, the government relies on proven liar Andrew McCabe, who had a personal grudge against Flynn.

It does not appear Flynn could have known that McCabe, an indispensable witness against him, was under investigation for lying to the FBI. It’s hard to imagine a better demonstration of the double standard in our justice system than the contrast between the treatment of McCabe’s lying to the FBI and that of the alleged Flynn lying.


Weissmann’s Puppet Strings

Perhaps the original sin of the special counsel was that the person really in charge of the investigation was never Robert Mueller.

As I noted here, Mueller could not have written or read (with comprehension) his own report. He lacked a basic understanding of the most simple of facts in the Russia collusion investigation and must have left the true leadership to somebody else. This means Andrew Weissmann was, in all likelihood, the true leader.

If true, this clearly violates the spirit and letter of the special counsel’s regulation requiring that the probe be run by an outsider. One can see why. The special counsel operates with the power of an unelected branch of government with an unlimited budget that can undermine the constitutional functions of a duly elected president. Thus, allowing a partisan to use the office as a base of operations can lead to . . . well, exactly what happened.

Weissmann was in on the ground floor of the collusion hoax. In the summer and fall of 2016, Bruce Ohr acted as a conduit between the Clinton campaign subcontractor Christopher Steele and the FBI. For reasons that remain unclear, Ohr briefed Weissmann on the Steele “research,” as it was unfolding in August 2016.

In Friday’s motion, Powell points out that “Weissmann and Ahmad,” another lawyer who would later join Mueller’s team, “were not in the DoJ chain of command to be informed by Mr. Ohr . . . [and] had no legitimate reason to be privy to his operations with FusionGPS and Christopher Steele.” Powell further complained that the government failed to disclose Weissmann’s involvement with Ohr in the early days of the investigation.


Problems with the Second FBI Agent Who Interviewed Flynn

Powell’s motion represents a new bombshell: “the second agent who interviewed Mr. Flynn along with former agent Strzok was Bruce Ohr’s contact with the FBI and conducted numerous debriefings of Mr. Ohr.” She goes on to suggest that this same unnamed FBI agent went on to join the special counsel’s team. If true, that would be another indication the Flynn interview was engineered as part of the larger project to get Trump.


The Mysterious Recusal of Judge Rudolph “Rudy” Contreras 

Just one week after Flynn pleaded guilty, the presiding judge was recused from handling the case. On March 16, 2018, the Washington Post reported on the following July 25, 2016 text message exchange between Lisa Page and Peter Strzok:
“I can’t imagine either one of you could talk about anything in detail meaningful enough to warrant recusal,” Page said to Strzok in one text, making an apparent reference to Contreras.
“Really?” Strzok replied. “‘Rudy, I’m in charge of espionage for the FBI.’ Any espionage [warrant request that] comes before him, what should he do? Given his friend oversees them?”
Strzok went on to add that a “social setting with others would probably be better than a one on one meeting.” The text exchange appears to suggest that Page and Strzok were angling to lobby the judge to help Strzok with a case.

Strzok’s plan to use a social gathering to influence Contreras is particularly alarming because, as the same Post article notes, “Strzok, with another FBI agent, interviewed Flynn about his conversations with Russia’s then-ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, during the transition.” Judges are not supposedto have secret meetings about “pending or impending” matters except as prescribed by law. One imagines that if Strzok’s hoped-for contact with Judge Contreras was legitimate, a more appropriate venue for a permissible contact would be a courtroom or the judge’s chambers, not a cocktail party. It should go without saying that there are no court reporters at cocktail parties to preserve the conversation for later review.

We have absolutely no indication that Contreras participated in any improper secret conversation with Strzok. Nor do we know that the judge knew about Strzok’s relationship to the case when he accepted the Flynn plea. Margot Cleveland wrote an analysis of the recusal which nevertheless leaves open the question as to why the recusal was necessary.
This leads to the next question: did Flynn have a right to know the underlying circumstances behind the recusal and, had he known, would he have still gone forward with the plea agreement?

Powell’s new filing calls to mind her important book, License to Lie, a journal of the government’s destruction of the accounting firm Arthur Andersen through a later discredited prosecution by (among others) Andrew Weissmann. One should also remember that the judge who replaced Contreras happens to be the same judge who caught the government framing Senator Ted Stevens. One hopes that the aggressive defense of Flynn by his attorney will give the Justice Department pause before taking out another “insurance policy” against an election result they don’t like. 
at

Things Are Worse Than We Imagined in China

 Article by Michael Brown in "Townhall":

Earlier this week, I met with some Christian friends who have lived and worked in China for many years. What they shared with me was chilling and sobering. (They are well-connected and not simply airing personal opinions.)
First, the crackdown against Christian believers in the country (not to mention the crackdown against Muslims and others, which we did not discuss in detail), is getting increasingly severe.
Just a few years ago, there were real signs of change. Persecution was lessening and liberties were increasing. But not today.
There is a systematic attempt to purge the Gospel from the nation.
Even the national, Three-Self churches, in which there were some real, Gospel preaching pastors, are now virtually bereft of such leaders. And it is true that the Communist Party is rewriting the Bible to make it suitable for their purposes. This, then, would be the Bible used in these government-run churches. Talk about an utterly blasphemous act.
As for the underground churches, the crackdown against them is intensifying.
My friends have Chinese colleagues whose family members have received life sentences because of their faith.
Arrests, brutal interrogations, imprisonments, disruption of meetings, beatings, destroying of “unauthorized” Bibles and Christian books are increasingly common. In one instance that was shared with me, those owning non-approved Bibles and other resources were hit with “stiff fines and the books earmarked for destruction.  But not before they (the materials) were first dumped in piles on the street before they were carted off…followed by the pastor who was then sent to prison.”
To be sure, much of this has been known for some time now and I myself have written about it, most recently, last September. But, to repeat, the persecution is increasing, and it is chilling to hear about it firsthand.
Second, President Xi really does have megalomaniacal plans. By removing presidential term limits, he is setting himself up to be emperor for life (as my friends couched it).
Not only so, but I was told that the government, from top to bottom, seems to be in lock step with him (in particular, when it comes to persecuting Christians).
In the past, Beijing might say one thing and a local province would do another. Today, I was informed, that is not the case. The cooperation and harmony are deep.
Third, while the Chinese people may have enjoyed having more liberties, they are more concerned with a healthy economy. And since more and more Chinese have more and more money, they don’t mind the crackdowns on their liberties, which include greater monitoring of their day-to-day lives.
Not only so, but the government is now regulating what days certain factories can run and having more say about certain cars on the road, which is leading to less pollution and more blue skies.
Simply stated, as the people have more money in their pockets and more blue skies over their heads, they are all the more supportive of President Xi. In fact, my friend felt that if China went to war, people would enlist in the army en masse.
Fourth, my friends believe that China is increasingly becoming the antagonist in the world today, and they stated plainly that someone needed to stand up to China’s aggression.
When I asked if President Trump could be that person, they replied, “The Chinese liked Obama but didn’t respect him. They don’t like Trump but they do respect him.”
Right now, Trump is standing up to China when it comes to trade, and it appears he has no intention of backing down. (I am not an economist, so I’ll limit my comments to this one sentence, not knowing the ins and outs of his strategy.)
But I also know the president has people close to him who inform him about the persecution of Christians in countries like China and India, and perhaps here, too, Trump could take a stand. Would it help, especially if tied in with financial sanctions?
Perhaps.
But at the least, it would send a loud message and get the ball of resistance rolling. Perhaps other nations would then follow America’s example.
But all that is speculation.
The reality is that a very powerful, very dangerous China is rising on our watch, one that is capable of destroying many millions of lives.
Let us pray for God to stand in judgment over China’s tyranny, to humble or remove President Xi, and to help His persecuted Church.
And let us encourage our government to do whatever it can to push back against China’s evil intentions.

  https://townhall.com/columnists/michaelbrown/2019/09/01/things-are-worse-than-we-imagined-in-china-n2552258
Things Are Worse Than We Imagined in China
at

Joe Biden Needs An Intervention

Article written by Kurt Schlichter in "Townhall":

 Joe Biden leads the Democrat pack and he’s a catastrophe, meaning that we have to weigh the human kindness that compels us to seek to end his humiliation against the practical reality that this doddering establishment weirdo will get squashed by Donald Trump like a dung beetle under a steamroller. Or even like an ex-Beatle under a steamroller – Biden is the Pete Best of American politics, the guy who never quite made it. Except Pete Best wasn’t a gropey, senile, corrupt Democrat plagiarist with delusions of adequacy.

 And every day, [Pick A Nickname] Joe is getting worse.

 Now, Joe used to have this kind of goofy charm. He was and remains a doofus, but a harmless one, sort of like that dorky neighbor who makes circus music play in your head every time he wanders over to your yard to tell you a long and ultimately pointless story about how he saw a squirrel and the squirrel had a nut and it was a fuzzy squirrel and it lived in a tree and how he likes squirrels.

 But his regular guy act is wearing a bit thin. His appeal used to be that of someone who liked Budweiser and talking about sports and who did not give off the kind of smarmy condescension vibe to normal people who work for a living that is now so typical of blue state libs. You were talking about the old Joe when you talked about old school Dems, the party of the workin’ man instead of the party of the illegal alien, government drone and bitter SJW. These salt-of-the-earth folks were the very people that Trump – who spent his whole career working with union guys to build stuff instead of bloviating for a living like the New Class elites are wont to do – appealed to and stole right out from under the Democrat coalition. Not that many Democrats minded losing the white working class – Felonia Milhous von Pantsuit famously wrote off people who sweat when they work, probably because of all that unjust privilege held by guys who drive Mac trucks or fix toilets.

 Joe’s big sell is that he could get these Normals back in the fold, and that was a threat for a while, except Joe has not only dived way left with his party but the scrutiny he has invited has changed the Biden narrative, and not for the better.

 Here’s the thing – you are not going to win back hardworking middle-class voters by promising to pay for the medical care of illegal aliens who shouldn’t even be here in the first place. And it’s pretty hard to trash the current medical system when it’s the system you and your boss Barack Obama forced us all into in the first place. Getting huffy when you get asked how many genders there are and then get a follow-up of “So, what’s number three?” does not help you appeal to real people either.

 But everyone goes left in a Dem primary, and Joe would no doubt try to pivot back in the general. He might be able to pull off his centrist scam again after the convention, and if that was his only problem, he might have a decent shot.

 But it’s not his only problem. He’s got a whole bunch of problems and Trump will mercilessly twist the knife in every one of them.

 Let’s start with his family. His relatives were apparently brazenly peddling Joe’s influence to the Chi-coms and the Ukrainians and probably others. While that won’t upset the mainstream media – it only cares about fake TRUMP RUSSIA TREASON baloney when it comes to foreign influence peddling – normal people will find that disturbing. And the mainstream media can no longer treat such stories the way the big Indian (no relation to Elizabeth Warren) treated Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest because we now have alternative media to get out the word on this sordid corruption.

 And let’s not even get into his son Cokie’s bizarre lifestyle. “Well, Mr. Vice President, the good news is your son is no longer married to your other son’s widow. The bad news is he left her to marry someone else then knocked up yet another woman.”

 Even putting aside his disturbing skinny-dipping fetish, there’s the gal-groping. He seems to be trying really hard not to get handsy with the local talent, but you know he’s going to slip up. He can’t help it. He’s not a mere hugger. He’s gross, and that’s already defining him.

 Now, maybe you can survive some tarnishes on the old image. Hell, people still voted for the Clintons again and again. But it’s hard to survive being defined as an incoherent bull-Schiff-er.

 Joe is the Gaffe-O-Matic, with a new embarrassment every day exuding from his ever-open piehole. One day he’s standing in New Hampshire extolling the virtues of Keene, Vermont. The next day he’s creating his own ever-morphing Sarajevo sniper story about pinning a medal on a corporal, or was it a Navy captain? There’s a significant difference, in that the corporal actually works for a living. And a “young” Navy captain? Let me assure you that no O6 in any branch qualifies as “young.”

 And it just goes on and on. Joe was always a clown, a joke, the politician other pols sent to pick someone up from the airport. If he was a member of the Corleone family, he’d be Chris.

 But now this ancient, crusty nimrod wants to have his finger on the button. At 76 today, he’s just not all there, and he was never much there to begin with. His handlers will rightly worry that when he wanders down to the Oval Office in the morning he’ll be in a loose, flapping bathrobe because he forgot to change out of his pajamas. Assuming he was even sleeping in PJs and not going commando. It’s not like the Oval Office hasn’t been the scene of cringey antics before. Four years of this guy? He can’t handle four minutes onstage without embarrassing himself.

 Joe desperately needs an intervention, but he won’t get one. We normal people think he’s a Dumb Man Walking, and the polls indicate way too many Democrats think he’s the cream of their commie candidate crop, the one with the best chance to take on Trump. So, he’ll keep mortgaging his dignity until he either wins the nomination or the Democrats decide to go all-in on the Stalinist, or the Squaw, or the Furry, or Stevie Nicks 2.0, or one of the other members of their primary freak show’s cast.

 Right now, Trump’s gotta be rolling with laughter.

 Oh well. It couldn’t happen to a nicer party.

 https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2019/09/01/joe-biden-needs-an-intervention-n2552467
 Joe Biden Needs An Intervention

at

Pope freed by firefighters after being stuck in Vatican lift!

Pope Francis has apologised for arriving late for his weekly prayer in St Peter's Square, saying was stuck in a lift in the Vatican.
The 82-year-old pontiff said he had been trapped in the lift for 25 minutes because of a power outage before he was freed by firefighters.
"I have to apologise for being late," a smiling Pope said at the start of the Angelus address.
He then asked the crowd for a round of applause for the firefighters.
Addressing the crowd, the Pope said there had been a "drop in voltage and the elevator stopped".
"Thank goodness, the firefighters arrived, and I thank them so much, and after 25 minutes of work they managed to get it started again," he said.
 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49543412


at

Communist use of "Red Flag" Laws

Remarks against Antifa prompt FBI seizure of former Marine’s weapons under Oregon’s ‘red flag’ law: reports



A former Marine who said at a protest that he would “slaughter” Antifa members in self-defense, if attacked, recently had his five weapons confiscated by the FBI, according to reports.
The temporary seizure came through the use of Oregon’s “red flag” law, which allows law enforcement agencies and family members to seek a court order to have weapons taken away from an individual viewed as potentially violent. Such laws are often opposed by supporters of Second Amendment gun rights.
The former Marine, Shane Kohfield, 32, was not charged with any crime, but surrendered five guns, including an AR-15 rifle, according to Phil Lemman, Oregon’s acting deputy state court administrator, the Washington Examiner reported.
The action was reportedly prompted by remarks Kohfield made in public during a demonstration outside the home of Portland, Ore., Mayor Ted Wheeler in August, the Oregonian/OregonLive reported.
“If Antifa gets to the point where they start killing us, I’m going to kill them next," Kohfield told a crowd, according to the Oregonian. “I’d slaughter them, and I have a detailed plan on how I would wipe out Antifa.”
Kohfield previously wrote to U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, a former Navy SEAL, to share his concern about Antifa and voice his support for having the group declared a terrorist organization, a step that President Trump has considered.
Portland has been the site of frequent violent clashes between members of far-left Antifa and supporters of conservative groups such as Proud Boys. The mayor and other city officials have faced criticism for their handling of such events.
Based on the court order, Kohfield – who served two tours of duty in Iraq -- was committed to a veterans hospital for 20 days and was barred from participating in subsequent protests in Portland.
According to the Oregonian, Kohfield conceded that he probably appeared threatening to other people, but he never intended to cause harm.
“I looked unhinged,” he told the newspaper. “I looked dangerous and have the training to be dangerous.”
The FBI would not comment about the case, the Oregonian reported. It was unclear when Kohfield’s weapons would be returned to him.
The Oregon Legislature narrowly passed the state’s red-flag law in 2017, with no Republican support in the House and backing from only one Republican in the Senate. Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, signed the bill into law on Aug. 15 of that year and the law took effect Jan. 1, 2018.


at