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Russia.

So, you’ve already received the talking point that a Corbyn or Sanders win is due to Russian influence and the consortium of media, DNC, the deep state and billionaires will overturn their elections the way they’ve tried to overturn trump’s.

This is exactly what I suspected.

Boris Johnson was on Monday night accused of presiding over a cover-up after it emerged that No 10 refused to clear the publication of a potentially incendiary report examining Russian infiltration in British politics, including the Conservative party.

Downing Street indicated on Monday that it would not allow a 50-page dossier from the intelligence and security committee to be published before the election, prompting a string of complaints over its suppression.

The committee’s chairman, Dominic Grieve, called the decision “jaw dropping”, saying no reason for the refusal had been given, while Labour and Scottish National party politicians accused No 10 of refusing to recognise the scale of Russian meddling.

Fresh evidence has also emerged of attempts by the Kremlin to infiltrate the Conservatives by a senior Russian diplomat suspected of espionage, who spent five years in London cultivating leading Tories including Johnson himself.

Russian interference in the Brexit referendum included the promotion of misinformation through both fake social media accounts and state-sponsored media outlets such as RT and Sputnik. In addition to interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Russian trolls have previously been documented promoting fake claims of election fraud after the 2014 Scottish independence referendum and attempting to amplify the public impact of terrorist attacks,[36] with Prime Minister Theresa May accusing the Russian government of “deploying its state-run media organisations to plant fake stories and photo-shopped images in an attempt to sow discord in the West and undermine our institutions”.[37]

Horowitz proposed changes for the F.B.I.
F.B.I. officials could have avoided many of their troubling mistakes and omissions, Mr. Horowitz concluded in his report, offering nine recommendations for changes in the bureau to prevent similar failures.

My god, why can't he pick on someone his own size and face to face for a change? Such a pansy. He needs to work on his self esteem so he won't be so intimidated by all the people better than him. I mean; really. Way to go Greta, keep it up. You're an inspiration for girls everywhere.

Heck of an intellectual accomplishment on your part. Russia is working to aid Boris, not Corbyn.

Russia
The elections have largely been a muted affair in Russia, but Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the head of the nationalist LDPR party and a loose ally of Vladimir Putin, delivered a full-throated endorsement for the Tories and Brexit on Thursday.



“I and the entire LDPR party sincerely wish you victory in the election today. With the support of people, you will quickly bring Britain out of the European Union!” tweeted Zhirinovsky, who is known for making outrageous statements.

Zhirinovsky was probably trolling, but the sentiment is real. Russia has largely welcomed the UK’s exit from the EU as proof that the European project is coming apart at the seams.

Russian TV anchors highlighted the theatrical nature of the campaign – an element somewhat lacking in Russia’s own elections. “The campaign often resembled a show, with PM Boris Johnson bringing milk to people at home, hiding from journalists’ questions in a refrigerator, and baking a pie, but mainly underlining that Brexit is a reality,” said a broadcast on the state-run Rossiya-24.

Russia has largely welcomed the UK’s exit from the EU as proof that the European project is coming apart at the seams.

GOP confirms another Trump judicial nominee deemed ‘not qualified’

Last week, Senate Republicans confirmed to the federal bench Sarah Pitlyk, a 42-year-old conservative lawyer who received a “not qualified” rating from the American Bar Association. The ABA’s rationale for the rating explained that Pitlyk, among other things, has never tried a case as lead or co-counsel, examined a witness, taken a deposition, or picked a jury.

She also has a record of fierce opposition to reproductive rights, arguing that fertility treatments and surrogacy have “grave” adverse effects on society. Senate Republicans nevertheless rewarded her with a lifetime appointment to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.

Yesterday, as the HuffPost reported, the GOP-led Senate confirmed yet another one of Donald Trump’s highly controversial judicial nominees who also received a “not qualified” rating.

Quote:

Senate Republicans voted Wednesday to make Lawrence VanDyke a lifetime federal judge, despite the American Bar Association rating him “not qualified” because, according to his own colleagues, he is “arrogant, lazy, an ideologue, and lacking in knowledge of the day-today practice including procedural rules.” […]

More than 200 national civil and human rights groups opposed VanDyke, citing his record of attacking LGBTQ rights (he claimed in a 2004 Harvard Law Record article that same-sex families hurt children and that LGBTQ people are deviant) and arguing against women’s reproductive rights (as Montana’s solicitor general, he submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in support of Arizona’s 20-week abortion ban and asked the justices to reconsider Roe v. Wade).

which is why they're claiming the Russians are helping Labour.

At the height of the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon was running low on friends. When the U.S. House voted to begin impeachment hearings, for example, the vote was 410 to 4. One of the four was an Indiana Republican named Earl Landgrebe.

Months later, as the disgraced president prepared to leave the White House, Landgrebe delivered a line that helped define his political career. "Don't confuse me with the facts," the congressman said the day before Nixon's resignation. "I've got a closed mind. I will not vote for impeachment. I'm going to stick with my president even if he and I have to be taken out of this building and shot.".

...Nearly a half-century later, it seems there’s an entire political party of Earl Landgrebes...

Boris Johnson has not voted for himself on polling day after registering to vote in Westminster rather than his own marginal London constituency.

Johnson broke with a tradition set by his recent predecessors and voted at Methodist Central Hall, near Downing Street, at around 8.15am.

The Defense Department’s inspector general will look at a $400 million contract awarded to a North Dakota company embraced by President Trump.

WASHINGTON — The Office of Inspector General for the Department of Defense will investigate a $400 million contract for border wall construction awarded to a North Dakota company after President Trump privately pushed the deal.

The chairman of the House Homeland Security committee, Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, called for the inquiry into the decision made by the United States Army Corps of Engineers last week, raising concerns of “inappropriate influence.” Mr. Thompson wrote in a letter that Fisher Sand & Gravel “did not meet the operational requirements of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and its prototype project came in late and over budget.”

Glenn Fine, the principal deputy inspector general for the Department of Defense, wrote a letter to Mr. Thompson on Thursday saying the watchdog would investigate the contract for Arizona wall construction to see if it met solicitation standards.

“In response to your request, we have decided to initiate an audit of the solicitation and award of this contract,” Mr. Fine said in the letter to Mr. Thompson. “We are assessing the methodology of that audit and will formally announce the audit soon.”

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The Defense Department’s internal watchdog announced this week it would also broadly examine the military’s activities at the southern border.

The North Dakota investigation is the latest setback for Mr. Trump’s border wall. Earlier this week, a federal judge in Texas issued a nationwide injunction preventing the Trump administration from using $3.6 billion in military construction funds, secured through a national emergency declaration, to erect a wall along the southern border, ruling that the declaration was unlawful. A judge also blocked a private group from building its own wall.

The North Dakota company had never been awarded a construction contract before, Mr. Thompson said in a statement. “Given the president’s multiple endorsements of this company and the amount of taxpayer money at stake, I remain concerned about the possibility of inappropriate influence on the Army Corps’ contracting decision,” he said.

Mr. Trump had lobbied the Army Corps of Engineers to choose the North Dakota company, despite opposition from military officials who raised concerns about the company’s standards, according to one current and one former administration official. The company’s chief executive, Tommy Fisher, has repeatedly gone on Fox News to cheer for the border wall, a public appeal on the president’s favorite news channel that has helped others win senior positions in the Department of Homeland Security.

The Washington Post also reported this summer that Senator Kevin Cramer, Republican of North Dakota and an early endorser of Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign, held up the confirmation of a White House official as he attempted to steer contracts to Fisher.

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Senator Cramer, who received a $10,000 campaign donation from Mr. Fisher and invited him to Mr. Trump’s State of the Union address last year, issued a congratulatory statement to the media last week when the contract was awarded to the North Dakota company.

The activist group, “We Build The Wall,” has also publicly campaigned for Fisher Sand & Gravel and hired the company to construct barriers in El Paso using private donations. Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s former chief strategist, sits on an advisory board for the group. Kris Kobach, the former Kansas secretary of state who has privately advised Mr. Trump on immigration matters, is its general counsel.

Mr. Trump so far has built about 86 miles of border wall in places where there were previously damaged barriers or vehicle barriers. The administration only last month started building wall in an area where there previously were no barriers.

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Why was the Hanukah celebration held in the White House two weeks early?
@BarackObama
wants to vacation in Hawaii in late December. Sad.

As regular readers may recall, Jeffress first rose to national political prominence during the 2012 presidential campaign, when he partnered with then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s (R) campaign and had some unkind words for rival Romney. Specifically, Jeffress targeted Romney’s faith, saying the Republican was “a member of a cult.”

A controversy soon followed, and much of the country learned of Jeffress’ record of over-the-top extremism on issues throughout the so-called “culture war,” with the Texan having lashed out at everyone from gays to Mormons to Muslims to Catholics (he’s described Roman Catholicism as a “cult-like pagan religion,” which represents “the genius of Satan.”)

Of particular relevance today, he’s also said “you can’t be saved by being a Jew.” As recently as four years ago, Jeffress even insisted that Christians in the United States are persecuted in ways comparable to Germany’s treatment of Jews before the Holocaust.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) once said to associate with Robert Jeffress was “beneath the office of president of the United States.”

Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer is resigning.

His resignation comes as a direct result of new revelations that he was using Conservative Party money to pay for his children’s private schooling, according to Conservative sources who spoke with Global News

Such delightful people around this president.