#i need threads on FBI private jet :))

[fearxtoxfreedom]

ELLE COPING MECHANISM : Listening to music? Check.

[lacewise]

I should say something clearly: the more ridiculous and less realistic violence is, the less likely it counts as a threat. So saying something completely ridiculous, absurd, and partially impossible (think: cartoonish) DOES NOT count as a threat. And threatening to report that to authorities is… somewhere between “unacceptable” and outright “the police will get mad at you instead” because it’s a free speech issue.

Now, business majors learn this first year because so many of us end up in tech or social media marketing.

So a certain CEO pretending not to know and making a special exception because his feelings got hurt, then threatening to contact the FBI, especially implying that further publicity will cause the report (when the platform he is in charge of does not remove or report domestic terrorist threats to the FBI) is… threading EXTREMELY dangerous territory for his career and business.

Free student professional consulting advice: I would strongly advise him to stop, shut up, delete everything, restore the account, and pretend like this never happened if he wants another job after this and doesn’t want to become a laughingstock on multiple other social media platforms while ruining his company’s brand.

Otherwise, I would keep doing what he’s doing but maybe take fewer trips on private jets. He’ll need to start pinching pennies soon.

Elon Musk can do it because he has already squirreled away more billions of dollars than you can even count. Anyone else’s reputation would be toast forever. And their monetization channels would instantly dry up. Forever.

[political-fluffle]

“THREAD: Have we reached the point where Giuliani’s role in Ukraine-gate no longer looks like an outtake from a bad Coen Brothers movie and is creating a far more serious legal situation that should be setting off alarm bells inside DOJ comparable to James Comey’s firing? 1/” (…) Amb. Yovanovitch’s Oct 11 Capitol Hill partially overshadowed revelations about ties between Trump World and a key Ukrainian oligarch, Dmytro Firtash. It’s important to read Yovanovitch’s testimony in the context of Firtash’s longrunning problems with the US Government. 3/ The other point of comparison that immediately comes to mind is an ongoing Federal criminal investigation of Elliot Broidy, a former top Trump fundraiser and the former vice chairman of Trump’s 2016 campaign. More on him in a second. 4/ WSJ reported on Oct 10 that Lev Parnas, one of the Giuliani associates arrested by the Feds, had been hired by Firtash’s defense team as a translator. https://www.wsj.com/articles/two-foreign-born-men-who-helped-giuliani-on-ukraine-arrested-on-campaign-finance-charges-11570714188 … https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/25/us/politics/trump-digenova-toensing.html … @aviswanatha @rebeccaballhaus 5/ That’s a curiously menial role for Parnas who presented himself as a high roller and whose campaign contributions gave him access to Trump and other GOP leaders. (Lawyer John Dowd says they had a similar role for Giuliani on behalf of President Trump) 6/ Firtash’s defense is now led by FoxNews regulars Joe DiGenova & Victoria Toensing. (Trump tried to hire them for the Mueller inquiry.) Chris Wallace reported on Sept 29 that they were working “off the books” with Giuliani to find dirt on the Bidens. https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/highlights-from-chris-wallaces-interview-with-iranian-president-hassan-rouhani … 7/ In reality ties betw Parnas/Fruman and Firtash run much deeper. They were “working for Firtash" before “Parnas joined [Firtash’s] legal team…Firtash has paid their expenses in the past. Their costs include private jet charters..& foreign travel to Vienna.” Back to Yovanovitch. She carefully laid out how the West’s long-running push for a crackdown on high-level Ukrainian corruption stepped on a lot of important people’s toes and some figures in Ukraine used their ties to Giuliani and Trump to disrupt anti-corruption efforts. 9/ Arguably the single biggest set of toes belongs to Firtash. He was arrested immediately after the 2014 Maidan revolution in Ukraine and has been stuck in Vienna fighting extradition to the U.S. after being charged by the Feds with FCPA violations. 10/ Since the early 2000s Firtash was at the epicenter of multi-billion dollar corrupt schemes that dominate the Russian-Ukrainian natural gas trade. This murky trade, largely done via intermediaries, is the main vehicle for Putin and others to sink their claws into Ukraine. 11/ It’s also good to think of the gas trade as Exhibit #1 for comingling of the Russian govt & organized crime. Firtash serves as the топ gas trade intermediary for the Kremlin and a Russian mob figure Semyon Mogilevich who’s on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List & helps control it 12/ Firtash acknowledged as much in a leaked 2008 conversation with then US Amb Bill Taylor (yes, the same Bill Taylor who wrote the famous text message lambasting Trump’s demand for a quid pro quo from Zelenskyy). https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/dec/01/wikileaks-cables-russian-mafia-gas … 13/ (…) What then to make of the revelation that Parnas and Fruman were arrested at Dulles last Thursday while en route to Vienna? Or that Giuliani planned to leave for Vienna, Firtash’s home base, the following day? https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/10/rudy-giuliani-vienna/599833/ … @elainaplott 16/ My hunch is that Parnas and Fruman may have been frontmen for Firtash, dangling info that was too good about Ukraine’s role in 2016 to lure people close to Trump. Was Firtash trying to get himself out of a jam with DOJ? Did Giuliani, wittingly or unwittingly, play any role? 17/ Bloomber’s @nwadhams broke a story about Trump and Giuliani seeking special favors from DOJ/State Dept for one of the latter’s clients, a convicted Turkish gold trader who had violated Iran sanctions. Rex Tillerson thought these requests were illegal https://twitter.com/nwadhams/status/1182062365057196033?s=20 … Back to Elliot Broidy. The Feds are investigating a Malaysian financier who reportedly asked Broidy to provide similar help. Broidy requested a $75 million fee from Jho Low if he succeeded in getting DOJ to drop charges in the case. https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-ally-was-in-talks-to-earn-millions-in-effort-to-end-1mdb-probe-in-u-s-1519919321 … 19/ That brings us back to where I started. Does this scandal echo the circumstances that led to the naming of Robert Mueller? Was Giuliani ever involved in seeking special favors for Firtash? Did he or anyone else ( DiGenova? Toensing?) raise this case with Trump or others? 20/ Key question: who’s the right person to investigate this? Surely the US Atty’s office in Illinois, which indicted Firtasy, has been watching him like hawks. SDNY is now reportedly investigating Giuliani. Did any of Firtash’s team touch people at even more senior levels? 21/ What is AG Barr’s involvement in the search for dirt on the Bidens and conspiracy theories about the 2016 election? Trump told Zelenskyy to contact Barr. Does Barr have a conflict of interest or at least the appearance of one? Does he need to recuse himself? 22/ Given the very real possibility that Trump’s personal lawyer (Giuliani) and others (DiGenova/Toensing) have clear connections to Firtash, is it conceivable they engaged w himon Firtash’s behalf to subvert the rule of law? If so, that sounds like a job for a special counsel END

[bellabooks]

An Organized Sequence: The Quiet Queerness of “Mindhunter”

*Contains some spoilers from Mindhunter.   As entertainment continues its current affair with the seemingly boundless genre of true or near-to-true crime stories, it stands to reason that David Fincher’s Mindhunter on Netflix should make a splash at the party, ripe with its director’s distinct style and expert command of intense yet quiet moments. I had a pretty good idea of what to expect when starting Mindhunter on the cryptic suggestion from a friend (“You’ll love Wendy Carr…”) — I watch Zodiac once every couple of years, and spend a few weeks obsessed with the grit and gristle of the events that unravel, the darkness that wells up in the police and reporters involved, the implications the film has for the current state of society. But for all of Zodiac’s intensity, I’ve always found it very one note, a thriller from start to finish. Its constancy in that aspect is a part of its power. Mindhunter, on the other hand, throws a few pitches from out of left field, and one of them is this: Wendy Carr, one of the three main characters and a critical voice in the story, is a lesbian. Much like with Devon’s character in I Love Dick, the promotional materials give no indication that a lesbian storyline is coming. The trailer shows a few glances at Wendy, exhibits a few of her lines that, out of context, are hardly critical. Her position as an academic professor is visually acknowledged, but the journey she’ll take from civilian to Quantico consultant to eventual full-time employee isn’t touched upon. There’s a pretty substantial reason for that — the texture of the trailer is centered around Holden Ford’s journey, and since he serves as the de facto protagonist, the show supports this construction. In episode six, however, Mindhunter quite literally jets off to Boston and follows Wendy Carr home to face her demons. Every interaction with Wendy at this point has shown a full range of actress Anna Torv’s abilities, from cool and collected to sarcastic, even sardonic. She analyzes, hypothesizes, and rarely loses her head, a steady north star for Jonathan Groff’s unsure yet passionate Holden and Holt McCallany’s gruff yet skeptical Bill Tench. She encourages their research, even before she’s a full part of it, solely for the purpose that this is the sort of exploration that needs to be done in order to try to form a better society, to try to prevent as much disturbed and deviant behavior as possible. We know little of her personal life — by the time Wendy is posed with the dilemma that will crack the closet door and give us a glimpse of her home life, we’ve seen Holden in bed with his girlfriend at least twice. The question she needs to answer is simple — will she throw away the possibility for tenure at a prestigious university, all in order to chase down and postulate over a new type of killer? The FBI chief, in offering the position, inquires after a husband, children (she denies both), and asks her to “sleep on it”, to take her time in thinking it over. As we follow her home to Boston, it seems like she’ll be doing just that, returning to the solitude and quiet of her own sphere to consider such a life-altering decision. What we get instead is Wendy showing up at the office of fellow professor Annaliese Stilman (played by Lena Olin), who’s surprised she’s returned a day early and greets her with a kiss. Their intimacy is subtle, refined, the closeness of two intellectually driven women who aren’t running away from the discussion. They take the conversation to a couch, collars loosened a little as Wendy relays the FBI’s proposal. Annaliese almost immediately shuts her down. It’s a tough scene to watch, her fingers tracing over Wendy’s wrist as she coolly reminds her that she’s three months away from tenure, that she’d be throwing away her career, that she’s wasting her time. When that fails, she tugs at an almost cruel thread — “Do they know you’re lesbian?” “Of course not.” The conversation begins down the path of hiding who Wendy truly is, and then abruptly stops; Annaliese has made plans with another couple for drinks and wants Wendy to join her. Fincher, however, doesn’t skirt the subject. The topic at drinks is about hiding oneself, their company an apparently fellow gay couple arguing that needing to hide oneself is a treachery that renders any other facet of the discussion a travesty. Annaliese squeezes Wendy’s hand while insisting that there must be quiet spaces where people are free to be themselves, and Wendy responds by excusing herself and leaving — not only the table, but the restaurant entirely. In her next scene, we see her leasing an apartment month to month near Quantico. Perhaps it’s innocent, but in the two scenes in which she appears Olin’s Annaliese is calculating, borderline gaslighting, the sort of toxic over-concern one would expect from Mad Men’s Don Draper when Betty gets just a little too independent. There’s a tendency to focus so in depth on the beginning of queer relationships (the classic beats of falling in, coming out, pain and finding beauty in spite of it) that few begin in the middle. Olin, at 62, has a good twenty years on Torv, and that adds another layer, an “I know better than you, I’ve seen more than you, I’ve been here before”. It bears repeating, but not every relationship is good, certainly not always a fair balance of power, and so not every representation should be, either. When the relationship between two characters has run its course, even if we were not privy to the details of that course, it ends, and the story moves on. Wendy’s sexuality is integral to her character, yes, but subtle. In direct contrast to the literal start to finish view of Holden and his girlfriend, Debbie, Wendy’s private life is just that, hidden behind the same reserved curtain as any other aspect of her history. It rarely approaches relevance to the larger plot of the story (a tense moment when zealous religion is brought up is quickly averted by other characters) and yet stakes such a claim in her drive, her hunger, and commitment to the project. In a moment when her loyalty is questioned, it’s a facet to reflect on, that she left not only her home but one of the few people who perhaps can truly accept her, a relationship as much about community and transparency as it is about love or sex. It’s been confirmed that Mindhunter’s second season is already in the works. Here’s hoping that, as we see more of Wendy’s story, it blooms with the same subtle intensity as it has thus far. http://dlvr.it/PwLKV5

[therightnewsnetwork]

It’s come to this: London police commish finds proof of city’s diversity (open thread)

**Written by Doug Powers

This Sunday open thread and cookout is hereby convened. Without further adieu, the lead-off story:

When politicians and the police are so PC they ignore obvious warning signs, this is the kind of spin we can expect more of after attacks:

You can’t make this stuff up:

“It’s desperately sad and poignant but among those who died is someone who’s British, there are French, Australian, Canadian, Spanish,” Cressida Dick told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday.

“In terms of our witnesses that we’ve spoken to so far, out of the 300-odd people, there are about 20 different countries of origin. And the London British population comes from all kinds of backgrounds and every kind of faith and ethnicity.”

She said longtime Londoners value this international aspect of the British capital.

“We believe of course that that’s what makes our city so great,” she said. “It’s a place where the vast majority of time it’s incredibly integrated and that diversity gives us strength.”

Great… now do the diversity of the terrorists who killed or injured them. One of the attackers literally told Italian authorities “I’m going to be a terrorist” but he was allowed into the UK anyway. In progressive drum circle anti-terror strategy sessions there are those who actually believe the streets will be safer with more law enforcement awakenings like this:

“Commissioner, somebody just ran down two dozen people on the street — 23 Caucasians and 1 Latino injured.”

“My God, we have a huge diversity problem!”

Incredible.

*****

Front page headlines in Friday’s New York Times seems to have missed something James Comey said at Thursday’s hearing:

Gee, I wonder why the Times didn’t try go give this revelation “bombshell” status:

The New York Times got it wrong when it reported this year that the Trump campaign colluded with Russian intelligence officials during the 2016 election, former FBI Director James Comey testified Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee. […] However, Comey flatly disputed all of that.

“That report by the New York Times was not true. Is that a fair statement?” Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, asked.

“In the main, it was not true,” Comey replied. “The challenge, and I’m not picking on reporters, about writing on classified information is: The people talking about it often don’t really know what’s going on, and those of us who actually know what’s going on are not talking about it.”

He added, “And we don’t call the press to say, ‘Hey, you got that thing wrong about this sensitive topic.’ We just have to leave it there.”

The New York Times obviously didn’t seem to think a story showing why you can’t trust what you read in the New York Times would be very good for business.

*****

NBC News’ Chuck Todd said Thursday’s Comey hearing was a bad day for everybody (and you know what that means):

Somehow I’m guessing that if Comey had said exactly what The Resistance was hoping to hear that would have been worded differently.

*****

For global warming alarmist NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, not being an eco-hypocrite would be a “cheap political stunt”:

Mayor Bill de Blasio has a message for New Yorkers looking for a productive way to respond to President Trump’s decision to remove the United States from the Paris accord on climate change: Do your part, and stop using plastic grocery bags.

But when it comes to his roughly 11-mile trips in a police caravan from Gracie Mansion to a favored gym in Park Slope, Brooklyn, the mayor — after one such trip on Friday — appeared to break with that philosophy during his weekly radio appearance, essentially telling listeners, do as I say, not as I do. […] “How about you stepping up your game, leading by example, getting out of your S.U.V. armada, and if you need to go to the Park Slope Y five days a week rather than a gym near you, why don’t you take mass transit or even once in a while ride a bike like the vast majority of your fellow New Yorkers, so you will know how we are suffering under a transit system?” Charles asked. […] But on the radio show, Mr. de Blasio said he should be judged not on his personal behavior but on the policies of his administration, including efforts to retrofit buildings and move toward more electric vehicles in the city’s fleet.

“The issue is not cheap symbolism here,” the mayor said. “The issue is, are we going to take action, are we actually going to change the way things are done?”

Progressive elite environmentalism in a nutshell — all as Gore, DiCaprio and Bloomberg gave de Blasio a wave of support while flying overhead in their private jets.

*****

Pass the popcorn:

CNN commentator Van Jones ripped the Clinton campaign and the DNC during his speech at The People’s Summit in Chicago on Saturday for wasting money and failing to reach out to working-class and minority voters.

“The Hillary Clinton campaign did not spend their money on white workers, and they did not spend it on people of color. They spent it on themselves,” Jones told a packed house at McCormick Place in Chicago. “They spent it on themselves, let’s be honest.”

“Let’s be honest,” Jones continued. “They took a billion dollars, a billion dollars, a billion dollars, and set it on fire, and called it a campaign!”

Somebody get Van another copy of the DNC’s talking points memo ASAP… he spelled “Russians” wrong!

*****

The floor is open. Have a good Sunday all!

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Powered by WPeMatico

from http://www.therightnewsnetwork.com/its-come-to-this-london-police-commish-finds-proof-of-citys-diversity-open-thread/

[patriotnewsblogger-blog]

It’s come to this: London police commish finds proof of city’s diversity (open thread)

New Post has been published on http://www.therightnewsnetwork.com/its-come-to-this-london-police-commish-finds-proof-of-citys-diversity-open-thread/

It’s come to this: London police commish finds proof of city’s diversity (open thread)

**Written by Doug Powers

This Sunday open thread and cookout is hereby convened. Without further adieu, the lead-off story:

When politicians and the police are so PC they ignore obvious warning signs, this is the kind of spin we can expect more of after attacks:

You can’t make this stuff up:

“It’s desperately sad and poignant but among those who died is someone who’s British, there are French, Australian, Canadian, Spanish,” Cressida Dick told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday.

“In terms of our witnesses that we’ve spoken to so far, out of the 300-odd people, there are about 20 different countries of origin. And the London British population comes from all kinds of backgrounds and every kind of faith and ethnicity.”

She said longtime Londoners value this international aspect of the British capital.

“We believe of course that that’s what makes our city so great,” she said. “It’s a place where the vast majority of time it’s incredibly integrated and that diversity gives us strength.”

Great… now do the diversity of the terrorists who killed or injured them. One of the attackers literally told Italian authorities “I’m going to be a terrorist” but he was allowed into the UK anyway. In progressive drum circle anti-terror strategy sessions there are those who actually believe the streets will be safer with more law enforcement awakenings like this:

“Commissioner, somebody just ran down two dozen people on the street — 23 Caucasians and 1 Latino injured.”

“My God, we have a huge diversity problem!”

Incredible.

*****

Front page headlines in Friday’s New York Times seems to have missed something James Comey said at Thursday’s hearing:

Gee, I wonder why the Times didn’t try go give this revelation “bombshell” status:

The New York Times got it wrong when it reported this year that the Trump campaign colluded with Russian intelligence officials during the 2016 election, former FBI Director James Comey testified Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee. […] However, Comey flatly disputed all of that.

“That report by the New York Times was not true. Is that a fair statement?” Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, asked.

“In the main, it was not true,” Comey replied. “The challenge, and I’m not picking on reporters, about writing on classified information is: The people talking about it often don’t really know what’s going on, and those of us who actually know what’s going on are not talking about it.”

He added, “And we don’t call the press to say, ‘Hey, you got that thing wrong about this sensitive topic.’ We just have to leave it there.”

The New York Times obviously didn’t seem to think a story showing why you can’t trust what you read in the New York Times would be very good for business.

*****

NBC News’ Chuck Todd said Thursday’s Comey hearing was a bad day for everybody (and you know what that means):

Somehow I’m guessing that if Comey had said exactly what The Resistance was hoping to hear that would have been worded differently.

*****

For global warming alarmist NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, not being an eco-hypocrite would be a “cheap political stunt”:

Mayor Bill de Blasio has a message for New Yorkers looking for a productive way to respond to President Trump’s decision to remove the United States from the Paris accord on climate change: Do your part, and stop using plastic grocery bags.

But when it comes to his roughly 11-mile trips in a police caravan from Gracie Mansion to a favored gym in Park Slope, Brooklyn, the mayor — after one such trip on Friday — appeared to break with that philosophy during his weekly radio appearance, essentially telling listeners, do as I say, not as I do. […] “How about you stepping up your game, leading by example, getting out of your S.U.V. armada, and if you need to go to the Park Slope Y five days a week rather than a gym near you, why don’t you take mass transit or even once in a while ride a bike like the vast majority of your fellow New Yorkers, so you will know how we are suffering under a transit system?” Charles asked. […] But on the radio show, Mr. de Blasio said he should be judged not on his personal behavior but on the policies of his administration, including efforts to retrofit buildings and move toward more electric vehicles in the city’s fleet.

“The issue is not cheap symbolism here,” the mayor said. “The issue is, are we going to take action, are we actually going to change the way things are done?”

Progressive elite environmentalism in a nutshell — all as Gore, DiCaprio and Bloomberg gave de Blasio a wave of support while flying overhead in their private jets.

*****

Pass the popcorn:

CNN commentator Van Jones ripped the Clinton campaign and the DNC during his speech at The People’s Summit in Chicago on Saturday for wasting money and failing to reach out to working-class and minority voters.

“The Hillary Clinton campaign did not spend their money on white workers, and they did not spend it on people of color. They spent it on themselves,” Jones told a packed house at McCormick Place in Chicago. “They spent it on themselves, let’s be honest.”

“Let’s be honest,” Jones continued. “They took a billion dollars, a billion dollars, a billion dollars, and set it on fire, and called it a campaign!”

Somebody get Van another copy of the DNC’s talking points memo ASAP… he spelled “Russians” wrong!

*****

The floor is open. Have a good Sunday all!

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Powered by WPeMatico

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