90 Miles From Tyranny

Thursday, June 13, 2019

Ranks within CIA reportedly ‘anxious’ as DOJ plans to dig deeper on suspicious origins of Russia probe

The Department of Justice plans to interview two CIA officers for its investigation into the suspicious origins of Robert Mueller’s fruitless Russia collusion investigation.

Specifically, U.S. Attorney John Durham of Connecticut will question a senior counterintelligence official and a senior analyst who investigated Russia’s attempts to interfere in the 2016 election, according to the New York Times.

Sources say that the Deep State anti-Trump operatives within the CIA are worried about the potential fallout from this.
Did Obama FBI conspire with the CIA?

US Attorney General William Barr is trying to learn more about the sources that the Obama CIA and FBI relied on before deciding to spy on Trump campaign officials.

CIA Director Gina Haspel said her agency will cooperate with the investigation, but will ensure that CIA sources, methods, and intelligence are protected.

Basically, this is the first of a long line of inquiry to determine why bogus FISA warrants were issued to spy on 2016 Trump campaign officials and how the Obama FBI coordinated with the CIA to conclude that Russia allegedly tried to help Trump get elected and undermine Hillary Clinton.

This is all ironic since President Trump has been far tougher on...

Fitton: FBI Notes on Clinton Emails Go Missing

Given the FBI’s repeated intransigence over the years in responding to our FOIA requests, I’m not of a mind to assume this story represents simply an innocent mistake.

The FBI has released 277 pages of redacted records that show the FBI failed to produce information from an August 2015 meeting with Intelligence Community Inspector General about Hillary Clinton’s email server. The FBI claimed that notes are “missing” and the CD containing notes from meeting is likely “damaged” irreparably.

The records, which were posted on the FBI’s website, are the 32nd release of documents in response to our 2016 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:16-cv-02046). We filed the lawsuit after the Justice Department failed to comply with a July 7, 2016, FOIA request for:

All FD-302 forms prepared pursuant to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server during her tenure.
All records of communications between any agent, employee, or representative of the Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding, concerning, or related to the aforementioned investigation. This request includes, but is not limited to, any related communications with any official, employee, or representative of the Department of Justice, the Executive Office of the President, the Democratic National Committee, and/or the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton.
All records related to the meeting between Attorney General Lynch and former President Bill Clinton on June 27, 2016.

Included in the documents are February 2019 FBI electronic communications documenting the damaged CD and the missing notes from the August 3, 2015, meeting between FBI special agents and the ICIG about Clinton’s server:

For reference, Special Agents (SAs) [redacted] have been gathering and copying materials from the captioned case located in the Washington Field Office (WFO) CI-13 Workbox in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) tasking from Information Management Division (IMD; formerly known as Records Management Division).

On or about February 6, 2019, SAs [redacted] opened [redacted]-CYBER-1A27, which contained a CD with a crack on it (a damaged CD). SA [redacted] attempted to copy the damaged CD at the WFO Computer Analysis Response Team (CART) self-service area, but was not able to do so. SA [redacted] spoke with FBI information technology specialists on the ground floor of WFO regarding the damaged CD, who indicated it was unlikely the CD could be copied.

The electronic communication regarding the missing “Notes from Meeting” says:

On or about February 4, 2016, Special Agents (SAs) [redacted] attempted to locate [redacted] 1A4, described as “Notes from Meeting” acquired by [redacted] (see referenced serial). The SAs looked through all case materials in the CI-13 file and workbox area, however they were not able to locate this item.

SA [redacted] inquired with Supervisory Intelligence Analyst (SIA) [redacted] regarding the item, as he was previously the IA assigned to the case. SIA [redacted] contacted [redacted] regarding the item, who indicated he remembered handing over his case notes to...

Mass Homelessness Exposes California’s Political Dysfunction

California’s great wealth only masks its increasing dysfunction. Nothing highlights this quite like the explosion of homelessness in the Golden State.

By any measure, California’s homelessness crisis is reaching epic proportions.

There are now nearly 60,000 homeless people living in Los Angeles County, a 12% increase from the previous year, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

Los Angeles is hardly an outlier.

“Other localities in California saw substantial increases compared with 2017, when they last conducted a count,”according to The Wall Street Journal. “In San Francisco, the number rose 17% while Alameda County, which includes Oakland, saw a 43% increase. Homelessness grew 42% in San Jose over the past two years and 31% in Santa Clara County, the heart of Silicon Valley.”

San Francisco, for all of its radical politics, is a beautiful city by the bay. Yet it’s evolving into a dysfunctional, filthy mess.

“Even in the good old days there was a Skid Row. Now the beggars, drug addicts, and lost souls are all over the city,” wrote San Francisco columnist Carl Nolte.

How bad has it become? Nolte wrote:

The city is out of control. Traffic is a mess, but it’s rare to see a traffic control officer. Trucks are double-parked everywhere. The city is dirty—a friend just back from Mexico City was astounded to find the streets there far cleaner than the ones in her native city. There is so much human waste on the streets of San Francisco the city formed a ‘poop patrol’ where workers are paid $71,000 a year, about same as the average school teacher.

Still, California seems to have more pressing matters to attend to, like banning plastic straws, plastic bags, and paper receipts. Also, providing free health care coverage to illegal immigrants.

California maintains a generous welfare regime, and its temperate and generally pleasant weather make it a natural haven for homeless people.

These populations are growing at a quickening pace, even as cities like San Francisco grow in wealth and opulence. Even worse, diseases that are more associated with medieval times than modernity are quickly spreading.

Los Angeles is currently suffering from an outbreak of Typhus, a flea-borne disease spread by rats. This comes hand-in-hand with the growing homeless community: Filthy conditions and widespread...

* Incident follows suspected attacks on May 12
* U.S. Navy says responded to distress calls
* Oil prices surge 4% on Gulf of Oman incident

DUBAI, June 13 (Reuters) - Two oil tankers were hit in suspected attacks in the Gulf of Oman, shipping firms and industry sources said on Thursday, sending oil prices as much as 4% higher a month after four other tankers were damaged by limpet mines in the region.

One of the tankers, the Front Altair, carrying a cargo of petrochemical feedstock, was ablaze in waters between Gulf Arab states and Iran.

Iran's state news agency said it had sunk, although the Norwegian owner had said it was afloat and its crew were safe. The other tanker was adrift without any crew.

The Bahrain-based U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet said it was assisting the tankers after receiving distress calls. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, part of Britain's Royal Navy, said it was investigating with its partners.

Full details about Thursday's incident were not immediately clear. The firm which chartered one of the vessels said it suspected a torpedo had hit the ship, while a source said the other might have been damaged by a magnetic mine.

An investigation blamed limpet mines for last month's attacks on four tankers. Saudi Arabia and the United States blamed Iran for those attacks, a charge Tehran denies.

Oil prices surged as much as 4% after Thursday's news. The region was already on edge following attacks in May on Gulf oil assets that occurred amid a dispute between Iran and the United States over Tehran's nuclear programme.

The Gulf of Oman lies at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz, a major strategic waterway through which a fifth of global oil consumption passes from Middle East producers.

There was no immediate confirmation of Thursday's incident from authorities in Oman or the United Arab Emirates, in whose territorial waters the four tankers were hit in May.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE have said attacks on oil assets in the Gulf pose a risk to...

You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside?

It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific,

from the beautiful to the repugnant,

from the mysterious to the familiar.

If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed,

you could be inspired, you could be appalled.

This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.

You have been warned.

Report: Google Runs ‘Blacklists’ Designed to Remove ‘Fringe Domains’ Like Breitbart News

A new report claims that Google runs two blacklists, designed to remove “fringe domains” and op-eds from featured snippets at the top of Google search results. Sites included on the blacklist include Breitbart News and the American Spectator.

The Daily Caller reports that two blacklists have been discovered as part of Google’s web answers feature. One is called “webanswers_url_blacklist,” and it impacts Google’s “featured snippets” or answer blocks. These answer blocks usually provide a quick block of content to the top of a Google search for a simple question.

The Caller claims that internal screenshots show instructions at the top of the page of the blacklist which reads: “To ensure the blacklist will REMOVE a URL, add a line ‘# REMOVE url’.” And, “To ensure the blacklist WON’T remove a URL by accident, add ‘# PERMIT url’.” This would appear to imply that these blacklists are manually edited by employees.

The Caller notes that a Washington Post op-ed titled: “How Vladimir Putin Became The World’s Favorite Dictator,” was included in the blacklist. The op-ed was returned by the algorithm in response to a user searching: “who is the dictator of Russia.” A note from a Google employee in the changelog shows that the company may remove all opinion pieces from web answers. “We are going to be removing opinion docs from all of newsey/political/sensitive webanswers. So, BLing any document that we consider to be clearly opinion is not an issue,” the employee note says.

A Google spokesperson told the Caller: “Featured snippets are a feature within Search that highlights web sources that are likely to contain what you’re looking for. Due to the special formatting they receive, we have policies that prevent us from showing a featured snippet for topics like civics or medical information where the content lacks broad consensus. Our systems are designed to not show featured snippets that would violate our policies, and we take action if violating snippets still appear. These policies and actions have no impact on how a page ranks in organic search listings.”

The second web answers blacklist, called all_fringe_domains, appears to be generated by an algorithm according to the Caller. Amongst the websites listed under the fringe domains section are Breitbart News, American Spectator, Breaking911, the website of pastor Brian Jones, the website of Bring Your Bible to School Day, Consortium News, St. Philip the Deacon Lutheran Church, SpeakerRyan.com, The Franklin Society, Free Thought Project, The Gateway Pundit, and The Gorka Briefing.

Multiple websites critical of conservatives are also listed, including Breitbart Unmasked and Spencer Watch, a blog critical of Jihad Watch’s Robert Spencer. Breitbart News recently reported that other Google search results had linked President Trump and his daughter Ivanka to the web answers section for the term “hebephilia.”

Breitbart News reporter Allum Bokhari writes:

Until Breitbart News made its inquiry earlier this afternoon, searches for the term “hebephilia” displayed a picture of a young Ivanka Trump sitting on her father’s knee during an event. The image appeared in Google’s “snippet,” the featured result that appears above search and is aimed at answering a searcher’s question right away.

It also appears as the first result in Google’s Image Search for the same term.

After Breitbart News brought the search result to Google’s attention, the tech giant said it would remove the image from its snippet.

“Featured snippets are generated automatically to help people easily find pages that our systems determine may have the most relevant information,” said a Google spokeswoman. “In this case, the snippet included an image from...