03/28/18

2 Russians May not Survive Poison, but What about Lesin’s Murder?

By: Denise Simon | Founders Code

As of the time this article is published, the Kremlin is turning the blame of the attempted assassination in Britain on the Brits themselves. There is overwhelming evidence that the poisoning was in fact done at the hands of thugs at the behest of Moscow.

Russia has denied any involvement in the attack and has said it suspects the British secret services of using the Novichok nerve agent, which was developed by the Soviet military, to frame Russia and stoke anti-Russian hysteria.

“We believe the Skripals first came into contact with the nerve agent from their front door,” said Dean Haydon, Britain’s’ senior national coordinator for counter terrorism policing. More here from Reuters.

Noisy Room has an excellent summary on Skripal and his daughter, that sadly are not expected to survive the assassination attempt by novichok. In part:

Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter, Yulia, are still hospitalized and are in critical condition in Britain after being exposed to the Russian nerve agent called novichok. Authorities now believe it was applied to their front door and that is how they came into contact with it. This is a military grade nerve agent that has no cure.

Skripal’s niece, Viktoria Skripal, told the BBC that the two have about a one percent chance of surviving. If they do, they will be crippled physically and mentally for the rest of their lives. The effects are debilitating and the pain continues to grow. It is prolonged torture until the victim succumbs and dies. She said the prognosis “really isn’t good.” The attack took place on March 4th in Salisbury. “Out of 99 percent, I have maybe 1 percent hope,” she said. “Whatever [nerve agent] was used, it has given them a very small chance of survival. But they’re going to be invalids for the rest of their lives.” More here.

*** But the United States is not without a successful assassination that happened in Washington DC, that seems to continue to be a major coverup. Further, the Obama administration did nothing to Moscow regarding the case.

BuzzFeed News has uncovered new information in its ongoing investigation into the strange death of Russia Today founder and Vladimir Putin’s former media czar Mikhail Lesin on Nov. 5, 2015, thanks – in part – to a report by Christopher Steele.

The [FBI] received his report while it was helping the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department investigate the Russian media baron’s death, the sources said.

(…)

Now BuzzFeed News has established:

• Steele’s report says that Lesin was bludgeoned to death by enforcers working for an oligarch close to Putin, the four sources said.

• The thugs had been instructed to beat Lesin, not kill him, but they went too far, the sources said Steele wrote.

• Three of the sources said that the report described the killers as Russian state security agents moonlighting for the oligarch.

The Steele report is not the FBI’s only source for this account of Lesin’s death: Three other people, acting independently from Steele, said they also told the FBI that Lesin had been bludgeoned to death by enforcers working for the same oligarch named by Steele.

DC police said Lesin died from a series of drunken falls, which just happened to take place the evening before Lesin was scheduled to meet with U.S. Justice Department officials to discuss the inner workings of RT.

BuzzFeed News has been out front on the issue of questionable deaths under Putin’s regime, and in the wake of the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, England on March 4th, the British government says it is taking another look at 14 incidents BuzzFeed has flagged as suspicious.

Meanwhile, the way authorities claim Lesin died in a Dupont Circle hotel in the heart of Washington, DC defies logic.

“What I can tell you is that there isn’t a single person inside the bureau who believes this guy got drunk, fell down, and died,” an FBI agent told BuzzFeed News last year. “Everyone thinks he was whacked and that Putin or the Kremlin were behind it.”

In December, DC police released 58 pages of its case file on Lesin’s death. While many parts are blacked out, what was released says nothing about the blunt force injuries that killed Lesin — or even about him falling down, which is how he is supposed to have died.

(…)

For his report to the FBI about Lesin, Steele gathered intelligence from high-level sources in Moscow, according to the two sources who read the whole report.

All four of the people who read Steele’s report said it pins Lesin’s murder on a professional relationship gone lethally awry. According to the report, they said, Lesin fell out with a powerful oligarch close to Putin. Wanting to intimidate Lesin, the oligarch then contracted with Russian state security agents to beat up Lesin, the report states, according to three of the sources. The goal was not to kill Lesin, all four sources said Steele wrote, but Lesin died from the attack.

The sources could not recall what, if anything, the report said about whether Putin knew of or sanctioned the attack.

Full story: Christopher Steele’s Other Report: A Murder In Washington (BuzzFeed News)

The British Government Will Review Allegations Of Russian Involvement In 14 Suspicious Deaths Exposed By BuzzFeed News (BuzzFeed News)

Related: More Mystery in Russia-Connected DC Death

From CIR’s Human Rights Abuses page:

Eight high-profile Russians have died since the November 8, 2016 U.S. presidential election. Buzzfeed has been investigating 14 suspicious deaths on British soil with ties to Russia that have taken place under Putin’s regime. The news site also has filed a lawsuit to speed up the FBI’s possible release of information pertaining to the suspicious death of Putin’s former media czar, Mikhail Lesin, in a DC hotel the night before he was scheduled to meet with the U.S. Department of Justice back in November 2015.

03/28/18

Russian Ex-spy, Daughter Exposed To Nerve Agent Have Slim Chance Of Surviving

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter, Yulia, are still hospitalized and are in critical condition in Britain after being exposed to the Russian nerve agent called novichok. Authorities now believe it was applied to their front door and that is how they came into contact with it. This is a military grade nerve agent that has no cure.

Skripal’s niece, Viktoria Skripal, told the BBC that the two have about a one percent chance of surviving. If they do, they will be crippled physically and mentally for the rest of their lives. The effects are debilitating and the pain continues to grow. It is prolonged torture until the victim succumbs and dies. She said the prognosis “really isn’t good.” The attack took place on March 4th in Salisbury. “Out of 99 percent, I have maybe 1 percent hope,” she said. “Whatever [nerve agent] was used, it has given them a very small chance of survival. But they’re going to be invalids for the rest of their lives.”

Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious on a park bench. A police officer exposed to the substance during the investigation was hospitalized and released last week. Over 130 of Brits were exposed to the agent, but are expected to survive their encounters with it.

At least 21 countries across the planet have expelled over 135 Russian diplomats they suspect of being spies. That includes NATO itself that has expelled 7 Russians. Virtually every country is blaming Russia and Putin for the attack. In retaliation, Russia is expelling diplomats and threatening a new Cold War. “Together we have sent a message that we will not tolerate Russia’s continued attempts to flout international law and undermine our values,” British Prime Minister Theresa May told Parliament

Russia is blaming Britain for the attack, which is ridiculous. They have adamantly denied any involvement in the nerve agent attack. But Russia has been involved in the assassination of 14 other individuals in Britain over the last 20 years. This is just an escalation of those actions. “This is an attempt on the lives of Russian citizens on the territory of Great Britain,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said. “It goes without saying that this unfriendly move by this group of countries will not go unnoticed.”

Theresa May says the Skripals may never recover from the attack, saying “their condition is unlikely change in the near future, and they may never recover fully.” In fact, death would probably be a blessing at this point. At least the unbearable torture would end. “This shows the utterly barbaric nature of this act, and the dangers that hundreds of innocent citizens in Salisbury could have faced,” she said. “We assess that more than 130 people in Salisbury could have been potentially exposed to this nerve agent.”

The remarks from Viktoria Skripal and May echo those made by a Russian scientist, Vil Mirzayanov, who once leaked Moscow’s secret experimentation with novichok. He is now 83 and lives in the U.S. He said earlier this month that the nerve agent, developed in the early 90s during the end of the Cold War, is “10 times” more powerful that other nerve agents like sarin or VX. “The people are gone – the man and his daughter. Even if they survive they will not recover,” he told AFP a week after the attack in Salisbury. He stated that the nerve agent attacks the nervous system, making it impossible for victims to breathe and causing unimaginable pain. “It’s torture,” he said. “It’s absolutely incurable.” That Russia could use this on people is not surprising, but it is evil and barbaric.

This brings to mind the infamous assassination of Alexander Litvinenko, a former intelligence officer who defected to London in 2000 after publically accusing his superiors of hatching a plot against a Russian oligarch. He fell ill in November of 2006 and died not long after that. His death was ultimately attributed to drinking tea poisoned with radionuclide polonium-210. A judicial inquest ruled in 2016 there was a “strong probability” Litvinenko’s death was a Russian intelligence operation that was probably approved by President Vladimir Putin. In my book, that is a certainty.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is currently conducting a probe into the nerve agent used against the Skripals. Officials said this week it could take two to three weeks to complete laboratory analysis on the samples.

Another hit on a Russian has surfaced this week that I have written on before. Buzzfeed is reporting that a secret report authored by Christopher Steele alleges that a former aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin was assassinated in Washington, D.C. and did not die by accident as the Department of Justice ruled.

Four sources familiar with the document told the news outlet that the former British intelligence agent’s report concludes that Mikhail Lesin was beaten to death by individuals working for a Russian oligarch close to Putin. The individuals were instructed not to kill Lesin, the report continues, but went too far and murdered him.

Steele is the source of the infamous dossier against Trump that is fake. But before you discount the story on the assassination in D.C., I will tell you I already knew about this and have known for a month or more that this was the case. There are other sources reporting it as well. Originally, Obama’s Department of Justice said that the man got drunk and literally beat himself to death. Which is laughable. The Justice Department concluded in 2016 that Lesin’s death was due to injuries sustained in an accidental fall, with “acute ethanol intoxication” as a contributing cause of death. I have no doubt that Putin’s thugs got over zealous and killed the guy. He was the former head of RT.

“As a result of the almost year-long investigation, the Chief Medical Examiner of the District of Columbia has amended Lesin’s manner of death from ‘undetermined’ to ‘accident,’ ” the department wrote in a statement at the time. Why and how that was determined is unfathomable and highly suspicious.

Lesin served as Russian minister of press, television and radio broadcasting before he founded the state-sponsored news agency RT, then known as Russia Today in 2005. Last year, the U.S. government forced RT to register as a foreign agent, citing the channel’s “strategic messaging for [the] Russian government.” According to Buzzfeed, no one at the FBI believes it was an accident. They never have.

This is yet another incidence of Putin punishing and killing those that fall out of favor with him. The attack in Britain was an act of war. It should be treated as such. Kicking out spies and tit for tat maneuvers are not holding the Russkies to account here and they will keep on doing it. Until countries stand up and tell the Russians enough and apply real consequences to them, they will only be emboldened to kill people whenever, wherever and however they want. It’s Putin’s way.

03/28/18

Leftists Are The Attackers, Not Victims

By: Lloyd Marcus

Duped family members, friends and fellow Christians have fallen for leftists’ lie that all they are tearfully asking for is fairness and tolerance on various issues. The truth is leftists are rabid relentless attackers, using government, deception and guilt-tripping to silence all opposition to their extreme anti-God, anti-traditional family and anti-freedom agendas. Indoctrinated by leftists since kindergarten through college, youths actually believe our first amendment right of free speech should be repealed because conservative speech/ideas are offensive to them. Youths also believe they have a right to physically beat you up to shut you up. https://bit.ly/2G6SpO0 Outrageously, leftists are making tremendous gains on making speaking the truth about various issues illegal.

For example. Take abortion. Leftists say they are pro-choice. The truth is leftists are at war with innocent unborn babies, wanting as many murdered as possible. Why? Because leftists believe humanity is bad for the planet. Leftists write countless articles infecting youths with their lie that child-birth is environmentally irresponsible. https://ind.pn/2ucA1h2 Leftists say screw God’s command to “be fruitful and multiply.” (Genesis 1:28) Leftists, in their prideful arrogance, believe they are smarter than God.

If leftists are truly about “choice”, why do they angrily oppose counseling mothers considering abortion? Why do leftists seek to make it illegal to show moms a sonogram of their unborn child? https://bit.ly/2G1YWtx Leftists desire government to ban mothers from hearing their baby’s heartbeat; seeing their baby’s head and fingers. Stats prove most women change their mind about killing their baby after seeing a sonogram. Focus on the Family says since the ultrasound program began in 2004, over 201,000 baby’s lives have been saved. https://bit.ly/2DRT5km

If leftists are truly on a saintly mission to provide women a choice, as they claim, why are leftists infuriated when a woman chooses life for her baby?

Leftists seek to make it illegal to speak the truth about abortion. As freedom loving Americans, this should make you angry, folks. Not violent, but angry; a righteous anger.

Leftists seek to make it illegal to speak the truth about LGBT issues. The California LGBT Caucus has introduced a bill to ban counseling to adults who seek to correct their same-sex attraction, behavior and gender confusion. https://bit.ly/2pDebxT

Again I ask, if leftists are truly about tolerance and allowing people to be who they desire to be, why are leftists infuriated; trying to use government to block homosexuals who want to become heterosexual? Why should leftists even care? What do they fear; especially after claiming homosexuals are born that way? If homosexuality is in their genes/DNA counseling will not change them. Right? So, why are leftist homosexual activists threatened by counseling?

The word “liberal” implies a live and let live attitude. The truth is liberals (leftists) are laser-focused on using big brother government to force their far-out minority ideas on mainstream Americans. The leftist media mafia publicly shames mainstream Americans into silence; banning publicly speaking the truth about leftists’ sacred cow issues. Homosexuals are 1-2% of the population. Transgenders are 0.3%. https://bit.ly/2pVBgK6 It is un-American to allow a handful of LGBT activists to bully us into silence and submission.

Perhaps, because I grew up in the Baltimore project surrounded by bullies, being controlled by bullies is extremely repulsive to me. One thing I learned as a kid is if you allow a bully to demand and take your lunch money today, he will take it and more tomorrow.

Here’s another example of leftists arrogantly banning speaking the truth. Leftists are hellbent on disarming law-abiding citizens. While relentlessly preaching to us about tolerance, a leftist refused to tolerate a student speaking the truth about guns and criminals. Leftists organized an anti-gun rally using students as pawns and cover. One kid showed up with a sign which read, “Guns Don’t Kill People, People Kill People.” https://bit.ly/2G51kPZ A leftist school principal immediately ordered the student to leave the rally. Notice how the leftist operative refused to tolerant truth, publicly humiliating the student for daring to defend our constitutional right to bear arms.

Do you see the pattern folks? Leftist activist thugs are dictating that we dare not speak the truth about their sacred cow issues or our derrieres are in big trouble; publicly humiliated and even jailed.

While leftists are bludgeoning us into silence and submission, my family members, friends and fellow Christians continue falling for leftists’ lie that leftists are passively seeking fairness and tolerance.

Leftists insidiously throw WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) into our faces. In other words, leftists are saying to be loving like Jesus, Christians must “in love” abandon biblical teachings; allowing Godless liberalism to infect our morals, principles, values and culture.

Leftists using WWJD to further their depravity is particularly repulsive considering that most leftists despise Jesus and His followers. Sadly, some Christians have fallen for leftists’ WWJD scheme, rolling out the red carpet, welcoming leftists’ anti-Christ agenda into their churches.

I heard this not-so-nice joke, but it makes an interesting point. A woman was cursing-out a man at the beach. The angry man threatened to drown her if she did not stop cursing at him. The strong-willed woman continued her rant. As the man held her head and body under water, her hand emerged out of the water giving him her middle finger; her final act of defiance. Though admittedly unwise, I loved the woman refusing to be bullied.

I would love to see more Americans refusing to be bullied by leftists, banned from speaking the truth about issues crucial to God, family and country.

Lloyd Marcus, The Unhyphenated American
Help Lloyd spread the Truth: http://bit.ly/2kZqmUk
http://LloydMarcus.com

03/28/18

Manic Market Day 2

By: Kent Engelke | Capitol Securities

Equity markets ended considerably lower, the inverse of the previous day. The tech heavy NASADQ was down about 3% while the Dow was off about 1.5%. The decline in technologies was led by Facebook whose shares according to Bloomberg have dropped about $145 billion or 20% in value since its early February apex.

In an attempt to place Facebook’s capitalization into proper context, the $145 billion decline is greater than all but 28 members of the S & P 500. Facebook is still worth about $450 billion. Twelve years ago, Facebook turned down a $1 billion offer to be acquired by Yahoo.

Many times I have commented about the lopsidedness of the markets. Five companies representing about 1% off all shares outstanding represent about 14% of the S & P 500. Depending upon the source/proxy, technology represents a record 25% to 27% of the S & P 500.

For what it is worth department, there is only one S & P 500 ETF that does not have any technology represented in its portfolio; a statement in itself is misleading for this ETF owns Amazon which it considers a retailer.

On the other hand, oil represents the lowest weighting in the S & P 500 in at least 50 years according to Goldman. The historical average is about 10%. Today oil is less than 5% of the S & P 500 as per Goldman.

What I find confounding is that oil equities are priced for $25/barrel crude even as crude is hovering around 3-year highs of almost $66/barrel, up about 165% from February 2016 lows. Geopolitics, a historical driver of oil prices is a disaster, a disaster that is not reflected in prices. Wow!

Moreover, according to the Texas based law firm of Haynes and Boone, since 2014 over 350 public and private oil companies have filed for bankruptcy. Goldman writes the companies remaining are in a “sweet spot, with rising prices, low operating costs and considerably less competition.”

I can go on some rhetorical and conjectural rant as to why oil shares are underperforming, but will instead write the infallibility of the technology and momentum stocks was perhaps shattered last week by Facebook. As noted earlier in the week, many of these momentum technology companies were given a pass enabling behavior that would have sunk mere mortal companies.

If economics still is of any merit, economics dictates monies ultimately gravitate from sectors that are viewed as overvalued to those that are undervalued whose environment is improving not deteriorating.

What will happen today?

Last night the foreign markets were down. London was down 0.62%, Paris was down 1.11% and Frankfurt was down 1.19%. China was down 1.50%, Japan was down 1.34% and Hang Sang was down 2.50%.

The Dow should open moderately lower as the tech selloff continues. The market is reassessing the profit potential and valuation of this sector, the sector that has propelled the indices higher the last several years. I can envision a scenario where the averages are flat to down, but the rest of the market advances as the proverbial distribution phase occurs. The 10-year is up 4/32 to yield 2.76%.

03/28/18

Judiciary Cmte Subpoenas FBI for all Clinton Investigation Records

By: Denise Simon | Founders Code

Politico: Facing a legal threat from House Republicans, the FBI announced Tuesday that it is doubling to 54 the number of staffers combing through documents to comply with GOP requests for records of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server.

“Up until today, we have dedicated 27 FBI staff to review the records,” FBI director Christopher Wray said in a statement. “The actual number of documents responsive to this request is likely in the thousands. Regardless, I agree that the current pace of production is too slow.”

Wray’s statement comes just days after a top House Republican, Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), subpoenaed the Justice Department for Clinton investigation records, citing “ongoing delays” in obtaining the documents. Goodlatte added that the subpoena covers documents related to the recent firing of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

Wray’s statement describes an intensifying demand on resources required by the bureau to fulfill the GOP subpoenas. It comes as some House Republicans have mounted an increasingly hostile campaign against the bureau leadership, accusing top DOJ and FBI officials of mishandling the Clinton investigation while assigning anti-Trump agents to oversee the Trump-Russia probe that the FBI launched in July 2016.

Democrats have derided those criticisms as baseless and politically motivated.

In a separate letter issued Tuesday, a top Justice Department official accused Goodlatte of breaking from longstanding norms in the relationship between DOJ and Congress. His subpoena for records surrounding McCabe’s firing, the department noted, came less than a week after his ouster and without any negotiations that typically precede a subpoena.

In a letter to Goodlatte, Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd called it a “significant deviation” from past practices.

Boyd also indicated that Goodlatte’s request included demands for documents that include “highly sensitive law enforcement and national security” information. Another request, Boyd said, covered information protected by attorney-client privilege and other aspects of the GOP requests were already provided, he said.

Boyd indicated that the FBI had provided the committee in August 2016 — during a previous session of Congress — with a 32-page set of investigative documents about the Clinton probe.

He said the department continues to provide new documents ever 10 to 14 days, based on Goodlatte’s requests, and that the work to produce them includes scrubbing for grand jury information, privileged materials or other sensitive material related to ongoing investigations.

“We are expeditiously reviewing the remaining documents to determine whether they are responsive,” Boyd said.

03/28/18

Lawsuits Against Facebook Growing

By: Denise Simon | Founders Code

Lauren Price has been on Facebook (FB) for eight years and claims she frequently saw political ads on the social network during the 2016 election. She is suing the companies on behalf of other US Facebook members whose information was also collected by Cambridge Analytica, a data firm that worked with the Trump campaign.

The proposed class-action lawsuit was filed Tuesday at the US District Court in San Jose, California. Price is seeking unspecified damages.

This is the first lawsuit brought by a Facebook user over the Cambridge Analytica news, but others are likely to follow. The lawsuit is part of a growing backlash against both companies.

On Tuesday, Facebook (FB) investor Fan Yuan filed a lawsuit against the company in federal court on behalf of other investors. The suit claims Facebook made “misleading statements” and neglected to disclose details about third-party access to data, which caused the company’s stock price to fall significantly.

Price’s complaint adds that the companies have violated the privacy of million of people in the U.S. alone, and that users now have a higher risk of identity theft as a result.

“There’s going to be a lot of litigation flowing from this,” said attorney Jay Edelson of Edelson PC in Chicago. He is not involved with either case, but his firm does plan on filing related lawsuits in the near future.

“The most direct liability is against Cambridge Analytica. We believe they have violated a host of city, state, and federal laws,” said Edelson. “The case against Facebook is less direct. On the surface, many believe that Facebook acted, perhaps, negligently. We believe we will be able to provide more context to how Cambridge Analytica fits Facebook’s overall business model.” More here from CNN.

SAN FRANCISCO

Civil rights groups filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against Facebook for enabling housing discrimination.

The housing rights activists, led by the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA), alleged that Facebook’s ad practices allow landlords and real estate agents to avoid serving housing ads to certain groups of people. The NFHA said landlords are able to avoid showing housing ads to women and families, for example.

“Amid growing public concern in the past weeks that Facebook has mishandled users’ data, our investigation shows that Facebook also allows and even encourages its paid advertisers to discriminate using its vast trove of personal data,” Lisa Rice, NFHA’s president and CEO, said in a statement.

“Facebook’s use and abuse of user data for discriminatory purposes needs to stop. It is already a challenge for women, families with children, people with disabilities and other under-served groups to find housing.”

Earlier this month, it was revealed that a political consultancy group was able to exploit Facebook user data on behalf of the 2016 presidential campaign for Donald Trump. Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg personally apologized, but the social media giant has remained mired in controversy regarding how third parties can access user data.

Shares of Facebook dropped another 4.9 percent Tuesday to close at $152.22. Since the data breach was widely publicized on March 17, the stock has plummeted 18 percent.

The federal lawsuit filed by NFHA alleged that the way Facebook’s ad service is built allows for discrimination when it comes to housing. Landlords can choose not to show ads to certain groups of people based on gender, family status and a series of other qualities.

“Facebook’s platform that excludes these consumers from ever seeing certain ads to rent or buy housing must be changed immediately,” Rice continued.

“Facebook ought to be opening doors to housing opportunities instead of closing them.”

Facebook has not released any comments on the NFHA lawsuit.