Day: April 19, 2018

Comey’s Memos Are About to TAKE DOWN Rod Rosenstein

Source: https://goo.gl/XHgfYM
Let’s face it, James Comey is a one-man wrecking ball.

The disgraced former FBI Director is not only destroying himself, with his “tell-all” book tour, but he’s also helping to bring down the Deep State right along with him, thanks to his memos.
The latest victim on the Comey chopping block?

Traitor Rod Rosenstein.
The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee says Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., is poised to subpoena the Justice Department for former FBI Director James Comey’s memos, which the agency so far has failed to produce.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., warned such a move puts Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in jeopardy of being placed in contempt of Congress and the special counsel investigation of being shut down prematurely.

Nadler announced in a statement that Goodlatte informed him Wednesday that “he intends to issue a subpoena to the Department of Justice — in this case to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.”

A spokesperson for Goodlatte did not immediately return the Washington Examiner‘s request for confirmation.

The Justice Department also did not immediately return a request for comment.

Goodlatte was one of three committee chairmen who pressed the Justice Department to turn over the Comey memos. Comey, who was fired by President Trump in May 2017, testified before a congressional committee that he wrote memos detailing various conversations he had with Trump. In one memo, Comey claimed that the president pressured him to end the FBI’s investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. In another, Comey recalled how Trump demanded loyalty from him.

The three chairmen, including House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., argued there is “no legal basis for withholding these materials from Congress” and set a Monday deadline for the DOJ to comply.

However, the agency did not act in time and was granted a brief extension.

Nadler warned that if a subpoena is issued it would be damaging to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

The Democrat said the memos are “key” to the special counsel’s work, and “pursuant to a longstanding Department policy and absent any satisfactory accommodation, the Department of Justice cannot simply hand over evidence that is part of an ongoing criminal investigation.”

Should House Republicans refuse any such “accommodation,” Nadler said, “I fear the Majority will have manufactured an excuse to hold the Deputy Attorney General in contempt of Congress.”

“If they succeed in tarnishing the Deputy Attorney General, perhaps they will have given President Trump pretext he has sought to replace Mr. Rosenstein with someone willing to do his bidding and end the Special Counsel’s investigation.”

Nadler vowed to fight to ensure the investigation remains unimpeded.

Trump has long called the Russia investigation, which is looking for evidence that his campaign colluded with the Kremlin, a “witch hunt.”

Trump has reportedly been discussing firing Mueller and Rosenstein, who is overseeing Mueller’s probe. Concerns about the president doing so amplified this month after the FBI raided the office, home, and hotel room of Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. Rosenstein reportedly personally signed off on the raid, and federal prosecutors obtained the search warrant for Cohen’s office after receiving a referral from Mueller.

During a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday, Trump said that despite reports over the last few months indicating he is going to fire Mueller and Rosenstein,

California’s Hayward Fault is ‘Tectonic Time Bomb’ Risk for 2 Million

Source: https://goo.gl/Ej9FnF
The US Geological Survey (USGS) has issued a report on the 112th-year anniversary of the San Francisco Earthquake warning that 7.0 quake on the San Andreas Fault’s big brother, called the Hayward Fault, could create a massive liquefaction event (sandy soils becoming liquid-like) along much of the East Bay periphery.

The Hayward Fault was named California’s “tectonic time bomb” in 2007 by seismologist Tom Brocher, due to the growing risk for 2 million Bay Area people that live above it.

The USGS estimates a main-shock collapse of 2,500 buildings, 800 killed people and 18,000 severe injuries. People stuck in elevators could also die over the following days. Emergency workers would be overwhelmed with more than 22,000 people requiring rescue from stalled elevators.

With water mains broken, secondary shock would include about 400 natural gas fires erupting and potentially destroying 52,000 homes. About 152,000 households would be displaced due to damage or lack of access, causing approximately 411,000 people to be displaced. The estimated total financial loss would be about $82 billion.

The buildup of pressure along the northern San Andreas fault in the 1800s produced a series of magnitude 6.0 or greater earthquakes, eventually leading to the 1906 magnitude 7.8 San Francisco Earthquake. But California’s 1868 magnitude 7-plus quake along the 75-mile Hayward Fault may have been largest and potentially deadliest quake, had more people been living in the area..
The U.S. Geological Survey led a collaborative effort with United Research Services, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Stanford University, and the University of California at Berkeley created computer simulations in 2008 for anticipated earthquakes on the Hayward fault.

Researchers are concerned that the last large quake along the Hayward Fault was in October 1868. Scientists have documented 12 major prehistoric earthquakes along the fault over the past 1,900 years that re-occur in about 150-year intervals, which means the clock is ticking.

Researchers are especially concerned that the Hayward Fault’s 45-mile long little sister the Rodgers Creek Fault, which runs from Santa Rosa south to just north of Richmond in San Pablo Bay, could combine in an epic cascading 130-mile long monster earthquake.

USGS earthquake geologist emeritus David Schwartz commented to the Los Angeles Times regarding the risk of a 7.0 magnitude eruption along the Hayward Fault, “It’s just waiting to go off.”

The USGS offers an online information booklet published in several languages called “Putting Down Roots in Earthquake Country” that can serve as a guide to prepare for what experts believe is the inevitable large earthquake to strike the San Francisco Bay region.

After Barbara Bush Dies, Laura Has Just One Thing To Say About Melania Trump

Source: https://goo.gl/5d97aua
Former first lady and presidential mother Barbara Bush left this world in style on Tuesday, “sipping bourbon” and sharing one last heartfelt conversation with her closest family members. With the nation still in mourning over this tremendous loss, George W. Bush and his wife Laura sat down for an interview with Fox News on Wednesday. It was then that Laura Bush was asked if she had any “advice” for Melania Trump.

According to Fox Business, President George W. Bush and his wife Laura Bush reflected on the life and legacy of Barbara Bush in an interview on Wednesday. “She truly believes there’s an afterlife, that she’ll be wonderfully received in the arms of a loving God,” the former president told Maria Bartiromo. “And therefore did not fear death. And as a result of her soul being comforted on the deathbed, my soul is comforted.”

Bartiromo then addressed Laura Bush, saying, “Mrs. Bush, you remain one of the most popular and loved first ladies of all time. And you have your own incredible leadership style. Do you want to pass on any words of advice to our current first lady Melania Trump?”

“Well, no, I wouldn’t give her advice, but I have met Melania – she invited me to tea at the White House. She’s a beautiful woman, and very, very lovely,” said Mrs. Bush. “I think she will do really very well.”
Laura Bush was certainly right about Melania Trump’s success if her official business on Wednesday was any indication. Indeed, as the former first lady was sitting down with Fox News, the current first lady was treating her Japanese counterpart to a tour of a historic U.S. mansion as their husbands golfed.

First lady Melania Trump might be one of the few not overly awed by a marble-bedecked and gold-plated Gilded Age mansion that she and her Japanese counterpart toured Wednesday.

While President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe golfed at the president’s nearby country club, their wives visited Whitehall, the 75-room, 100,000-square-foot (9,290-square meter) waterside retreat that oil and railroad tycoon Henry Flagler built as a wedding present for his third wife, Mary Lily Kenan Flagler. The Flaglers wintered there beginning in 1902, and it is now the centerpiece of the Flagler Museum.

Arriving in a motorcade from Mar-a-Lago, the president’s own gold-plated mansion 3 miles (5 kilometers) away, Melania Trump and Akie Abe were greeted by Flagler’s great grandson William Matthews, and museum Executive Director Erin Manning, who led them through a tour of the home, which historians say cost $4 million ($110 million today) to build. [Source: ABC News]

The close-knit relationships that Melania Trump is building with women like Akie Abe should not be overlooked, even though the media likes to act as if she is doing nothing but sitting up in her husband’s mansion and drinking champagne. The world is a safer place when the U.S. has strong relationships with its allies, and a first lady can play a key role in establishing those bonds. Laura Bush knows this well.
It should also be noted that the Bushs are not the biggest fans of the Trumps. After all, Donald Trump wiped the floor with Jeb Bush when they ran against each other in the Republican primary. President Trump’s leadership style is also very different from former President George W. Bush’s. Still, Laura Bush spoke glowingly of Melania Trump during her Fox News interview on Wednesday, demonstrating what a true class act she is. The two families may have their differences, but Mrs. Bush isn’t about to create some trashy scandal by bad-mouthing Melania.