The FBI and Carter Page- Bugs in the Binders

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Tuesday February 06, 2018 · 5:37 AM PST

2018/02/06 · 05:37

Last Monday, January 29, 2018, Rachel Maddow reported some details about how the FBI began to investigate Carter Page, long before the Steele document and the Nunes memo.

Here is a link to the show online and the relevant information starts at about 12 minutes in. I don't know how long that link will be up because recent Rachel Maddow's shows, even in podcasts, have been disappearing.

Link to full transcript

This is from the online transcript of that show: (it is a little off at times, but I left it alone except for one word.)

Three years ago this week, in 2015, Justice Department, the U.S. attorney`s
office in the southern district of New York, they made a dramatic
announcement. They had arrested a guy who appeared to be a random bank
employee. He was picked up by FBI agents at a shopping center in
Riverdale, New York. Nobody really knew what he was getting arrested for
at the time. But it turned out, according to his subsequent indictment and
trial and conviction, that that random bank employee who they arrested at a
shopping center in 2015, he turned out to be a key figure in an active
Russian spy ring.

This was the headline from the press release they put out. Attorney
general, Manhattan U.S. attorney and FBI announced charges against Russian
spy ring in New York City, aspiring, attempted to collect economic
intelligence and recruit New York City residents as intelligence sources.

Attorney General Eric Holder said at the time, these charges demonstrate
our firm commitment to combating attempts by covert agents to illegally
gather intel and recruit spies within the United States, will use every
tool at our disposal to identify and hold accountable foreign agents
operating inside this country no matter how deep their cover.

The two guys who were running their spy ring here in New York while
purportedly having normal Russian government jobs, those guys actually
escaped back to Moscow before the FBI could swoop in on them. The third
guy, the guy whose cover was working in a bank, he`s the one who actually
got arrested. He got put on trial, he got convicted, and he ended up
serving a pretty good chunk of time in federal prison in Ohio. They only
sent him back to Moscow this past spring.

And one of the spy movie Inspector Gadget details from that court case is
that the FBI fed these Russian guys in this Russian spy ring, they fed them
documents that had bugs in them, that had listening devices. So, the spy
rings operating in New York City, these Russian guys are trying to
cultivate American assets who will give them sensitive or secret or stolen
information which they`ll then convey home to Moscow, right? This is pure
spying stuff.

Well, the FBI cotton to what they were doing and they trapped them
basically. They arranged to give these guys documents that seemed awesome
that seemed like super juicy stuff that they would want to feed home to
Moscow center. But the FBI gave them these documents in binders, and the
FBI had put little microphones inside the binders.

So, these Russian guys from the spy ring, they`ve brought this booty, this
loot, this info they thought they had extracted from their American assets,
they didn`t know would have come from the FBI, they didn`t know had
listening devices in it. They brought those binders full of documents . . . into the Russian government`s facilities in New York so
they could convey at home through secure channels to Moscow. But even
though they were in a secure facility inside the Russian government
building, the FBI was listening the whole time to everything they were
saying because they had bugs in the binders.

These guys were unaware that they were being bugged. They had no idea they
had been found out they thought they were in a secure facility speaking to
each other about their operations and so they spoke totally freely about
how they were running their spy ring, about their strategy, about the
American assets that they were recruiting, including someone the FBI
described as, quote, a male working as a consultant in New York City.
Quote: Male one first met the Russian spy defendant in January 2013 at an
energy symposium in New York City. During this initial meeting, defendant
gave him his business card and two email addresses. Over the following
months, male one and the defendant exchanged emails about the energy
business and met on occasion in person, with male one providing the
defendant with male one`s outlook on the current and future of the energy
industry. Male one also provided documents to the defendant about the
energy business.

So, these Russian guys, right, two of them working as Russian government
employees and one of them working as a Russian bank employee – so spy
ring, and they`re trying to recruit American assets. And they got one.
They got male one they got this American energy consultant guy who was
happily shoveling them information, giving them documents, communicating
with them regularly, meeting with them in person.

In the course of the FBI`s investigation into this Russian spy ring that
was operating in New York, the FBI even paid a visit to male one, to this
American guy who was successfully being recruited by Russian spies. And we
later found out his name. His name was Carter Page. The same Carter Page
who later turned up as one of the five named foreign policy advisors to the
Donald Trump for president campaign.

The Nazis Studied America's Jim Crow Laws as a Model for their anti-Jewish Legislation

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Wednesday September 06, 2017 · 11:38 AM PDT

2017/09/06 · 11:38

Recently, I heard an interview with James Q. Whitman talking about his new book, "Hitler’s American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law". The book documents how, in the early 1930's, the Nazi's had looked at America's Jim Crow laws when they wanted to write their anti-Jewish laws.

In an article, "Why the Nazis studied American race laws for inspiration", James Q. Whitman describes finding historic records, including the transcript of a meeting in Nazi Germany.

Some quotes from Whitman’s article:

That transcript reveals a startling fact: the meeting involved lengthy discussions of the law of the United States of America. At its very opening, the Minister of Justice presented a memorandum on US race law and, as the meeting progressed, the participants turned to the US example repeatedly. . .
On 5 June 1934, about a year and half after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of the Reich, the leading lawyers of Nazi Germany gathered at a meeting to plan what would become the Nuremberg Laws, the centerpiece anti-Jewish legislation of the Nazi race regime. . .

The record of that meeting is only one piece of evidence in an unexamined history that is sure to make Americans cringe. Throughout the early 1930s, the years of the making of the Nuremberg Laws, Nazi policymakers looked to US law for inspiration. Hitler himself, in Mein Kampf (1925), described the US as ‘the one state’ that had made progress toward the creation of a healthy racist society, and after the Nazis seized power in 1933 they continued to cite and ponder US models regularly. . .

They debated whether they should bring Jim Crow segregation to the Third Reich. They engaged in detailed discussion of the statutes from the 30 US states that criminalized racially mixed marriages. They reviewed how the various US states determined who counted as a ‘Negro’ or a ‘Mongol’, and weighed whether they should adopt US techniques in their own approach to determining who counted as a Jew. Throughout the meeting the most ardent supporters of the US model were the most radical Nazis in the room.

But the reality is that, in the early 20th century, the US, with its vigorous and creative legal culture, led the world in racist lawmaking. That was not only true of the Jim Crow South. It was true on the national level as well. The US had race-based immigration law, admired by racists all over the world; and the Nazis, like their Right-wing European successors today (and so many US voters) were obsessed with the dangers posed by immigration.

The US stood alone in the world for the harshness of its anti-miscegenation laws, which not only prohibited racially mixed marriages, but also threatened mixed-race couples with severe criminal punishment.

It is true that the US did not persecute the Jews – or at least, as one Nazi lawyer remarked in 1936, it had not persecuted the Jews ‘so far’ – but it had created a host of forms of second-class citizenship for other minority groups, including Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, Puerto Ricans and Native Americans, scattered all over the Union and its colonies. American forms of second-class citizenship were of great interest to Nazi policymakers as they set out to craft their own forms of second-class citizenship for the German Jewry.

Here are some links to two articles and two interviews with James Q. Whitman.

Why the Nazis Studied American Race Laws for Inspiration

How the Nazis Were Inspired by Jim Crow

Majority Report interview with James Q Whitman on Youtube starting at 16:12 on the video

David Pakman Show, two part interview on Youtube

Part 1

Part 2

A Good Start for Expanding Medicare.

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Thursday August 24, 2017 · 12:21 PM PDT

2017/08/24 · 12:21

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) introduced the Medicare at 55 Act with the immediate support of Democratic Sens. Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Patrick Leahy (Vt.), Jack Reed (R.I.) and Al Franken (Minn.).

The bill, which would allow Americans aged 55 to 64 to purchase Medicare coverage, reflects the growing influence of progressive activists who are pushing for a single-payer health care system they dub “Medicare for all.”

Link

Democrats in the Senate have introduced a bill to allow people ages 55 to 64 to be eligible for Medicare. This is a good beginning and it helps everyone. It brings healthier people into the Medicare pool reducing costs for Medicare and the private insurance programs (Medicare Advantage, etc) many people use with Medicare. It should also help the ACA by reducing overall insurance costs for those younger than 55 by making that group healthier.

Some people can stop working if they are only keeping their jobs for the health insurance until they are 65 and eligible for Medicare. People in that age group often can’t afford insurance if they’re not eligible for ACA subsidies.

A Few Thought on Voting

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Saturday November 05, 2016 · 7:15 AM PDT

2016/11/05 · 07:15

A few suggestions that may be useful.

In some states there are judges on the ballot. One way that I considered these votes was to see who they were appointed by, a Republican or a Democratic governor. I would research each name online. There is a website, ballotpedia.org, that shows your entire ballot when you enter your address. It gives this information about judges.

I have two recommendations for voters who are unhappy about voting for Hillary Clinton. She has often been presented as a caricature reduced to a few buzzwords.

Frontline's program: The Choice: 2016

Hillary Clinton at the Wing Ding Link

The Frontline program has a lot of background information that isn't widely talked about now. I have heard some commentators say, after seeing it, that they never knew what she went through. Maybe someday the uproar about Hillary's comments about baking cookies and her attempt to reform the healthcare system, when she was first lady, will be relegated to the log-splitting days of Abraham Lincoln, but we have to elect her first.

The Wing Ding speech was given at a Democratic event, in August of 2015 before the Iowa caucuses, Hillary presents many of her positions on issues from Citizens United to the minimum wage.

Bernie also spoke at that Iowa Democratic event. Link his speech.

Some voters don’t think that elections, especially this one, make a real difference. The environment is a major difference between the candidates, and, for me, the most important lasting reason to vote.

Why I Oppose the Immigration Bill

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Tuesday June 11, 2013 · 9:14 AM PDT

2013/06/11 · 09:14

Too bad the people who lost their food stamps due to the Sequester haven’t got a lobby. Or the parents of the children who lost their Head Start or the people who depend on Meals on Wheels. Too bad they can’t hire lobbyists to represent them. If they were wealthy enough to complain about important issues like lines at airports, somehow we’d find the money.

Too bad the unemployed and under-employed don’t have a lobby. They’d be in Washington protesting the increased number of non-immigrant visas for skilled workers stuck into the current immigration bill. These jobs will pay less, and will allow the families these workers bring with them to get jobs here too. The tech industry lobbied for them as well as lobbyists from other countries. Anyone who has advertised a job lately knows that there are plenty of unemployed highly skilled workers available here.

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Friday May 17, 2013 · 7:19 AM PDT

2013/05/17 · 07:19

Why was Acorn targeted by the right? Because they register voters.

Before all the facts are checked, before any investigations, Eric Holder is being attacked by both Democrats and Republicans.

Eric Holder has used the Voting Rights Act to prevent some states from enacting laws that would suppress voting, through registration policies and at the polls. (Is it a coincidence the Supreme Court is considering getting rid of it?)

In June of 2012, the House voted to censure Eric Holder, blaming him for the death of a boarder agent was killed with a gun that was part of the Fast and Furious program started under the Bush administration.

This was Nancy Pelosi’s response:

The Democratic leader said it is "really important" to note the connection between the GOP push for a contempt vote and voter suppression efforts, particularly since, she said, the whole point is to distract from the fact that congressional Republicans aren't focused on substantive issues. She noted that the House is lining up a vote next week to hold the attorney general in contempt at a time when there are only nine days left to pass a bill to keep transportation projects funded and a bill to prevent student loan interest rates from doubling.
"Instead, let us tie the hands of the person who is assigned to make sure that the American people have the right to vote ... and that their vote is counted," Pelosi said. "It's all tied together."

As she was leaving, she emphasized her message again, unprovoked: "Don't forget, they're going after Eric Holder because he is supporting measures to overturn voter suppression initiatives in the states. This is no accident, it is no coincidence. It is a plan on the part of the Republicans."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... Read More

The Bush Deficit

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Thursday March 14, 2013 · 9:50 AM PDT

2013/03/14 · 09:50

Let's change our vocabulary and call things what they really are. We have the "Bush tax cuts" and "Obamacare" which different people have various opinions of. The other day, when I was talking to a Fox fan friend, I mentioned that Obama has lowered the Bush deficit. It just came out but it stopped the conversation. Now I always refer to it that way and I wish the media would too. Also the Bush recession, instead of the great recession. And don't forget the Bush bailouts.

Close the Social Security "Cap" Tax Loophole

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Tuesday October 16, 2012 · 11:30 AM PDT

2012/10/16 · 11:30

That is the title of a June, 2011 article by Dave Johnson that begins like this:

Most people don’t know that there is a huge loophole in the Social Security tax. Believe it or not, after $107K income you don’t pay any Social Security tax. This loophole is called the “cap.” The "cap" loophole is bigger than the loopholes that let big corporations get out of paying their taxes because while not all corporations avoid taxes, the "cap" applies to everyone making over $107K. Closing this loophole would fix all of Social Security's so-called "problems."

This cap means that most of us earning less than the current cap of $110,00 pay Social Security tax on 100% of our income, while others only pay tax on only a much smaller percent of their income.

(continue)

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Tuesday August 28, 2012 · 12:02 PM PDT

2012/08/28 · 12:02

A few weeks ago Mitt Romney’s mysterious tax returns were in the news every day. Harry Reid accused Romney of not paying any taxes for years. Ann Romney said, “we’ve given all you people need to know”... When asked why not release them and end the questions? "Because there are so many things that will be open again for more attack... and that's really, that's just the answer"

The Republicans have managed to make all that go away. They have changed the subject from Romney's taxes, his off-shore bank accounts, and negatives with Bain Capital leaks and facts, to definitions of rape, conditions for abortion, whether Akin will run, birther "slips", and now to welfare to work. This is deliberate. These abortion debates, birther talk, and welfare issues are great for them. Every news program is debating these non-issues—non-issues because voters already know where they stand on them. It only serves to convince the Tea Partiers and evangelicals who did't think Romney was right wing enough, to support him. And it's all free.

Romney's birther "slip" has been discussed by every news program. It brings up all the questions about Obama. Every time a Republican apologizes, it’s a sign to the right wing that they are with them. It’s never a real apology, just something bizarre like using the wrong word, or Romney’s “We’ve got to have a little humor on the campaign trail,” after talking about never being asked for his birth certificate.

I wish the news and especially progressive news would focus on Romney instead. His refusal to show his tax returns. His total lack of experience to be president. His failures as a governor. His misuse of government money in the Olympics. Romney himself asked for a waiver on the welfare to work requirements when he was governor of Massachusetts! That as when he was pro-choice-- or "multiple choice" as Ted Kennedy called him in a debate when Romney ran unsuccessfully for the Senate.

I think the People for the Destruction of America, or whatever they call themselves, are calling the shots and enjoying the results.

Did Obama Cut $716b from Medicare?

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Thursday August 23, 2012 · 11:02 AM PDT

2012/08/23 · 11:02

What is this $716 billion cut that Romney claims Obama “raided” from Medicare and Paul Ryan included in his budget? One of the most misleading things about Romney’s accusation is the implication that cutting $716 billion from Medicare will change the coverage of current or future Medicare recipients. It won’t.

The “$716b cut” refers to the Medicare cuts in the Affordable Care Act. The bulk of those cuts come in two areas. First, private insurance plans in the Medicare Advantage program have been getting paid about 20 percent more than traditional Medicare. Those overpayments are ratcheted back. Second, in negotiations with the White House, hospitals agreed to take a cut in reimbursements with the understanding that they’ll make more money from the 30 million previously uninsured people who will have insurance as a result of the law. The cuts to insurers and hospitals were sufficiently obvious that Paul Ryan included them in his budget.

From Romney’s Medicare Chart Comes Up Blank, by Ezra Klein on Bloomberg

Klein goes on to explain what it means when Romney says under his presidency there will be “no change” to Medicare, even when he promises to repeal Obamacare:

“No change” is clear enough. But in case you were confused, Romney emphasized that there will be “no changes, no adjustments, no savings” to Medicare for the next decade. So Romney plans to keep paying Medicare Advantage plans about 20 percent more than traditional Medicare, and he intends to give hospitals payments that they have already agreed to give up.

Medicare Advantage refers to health plans that Medicare recipients can select and usually pay extra for. They are offered by private health insurance companies who contract with Medicare.

Police Stop, Handcuff Every Adult at Intersection in Search for Bank Robber

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Tuesday June 05, 2012 · 6:59 AM PDT

2012/06/05 · 06:59

The police in Aurora, Colorado suspected that a person who robbed a Wells Fargo bank was in the area so they stopped cars and handcuffed about 40 people, asking them for permission to search their cars.

From an ABC News report:

Police said they had received what they called a “reliable” tip that the culprit in an armed robbery at a Wells Fargo bank committed earlier was stopped at the red light.
“We didn’t have a description, didn’t know race or gender or anything, so a split-second decision was made to stop all the cars at that intersection, and search for the armed robber,” Aurora police Officer Frank Fania told ABC News.

From some of the passengers:

"Cops came in from every direction and just threw their car in front of my car," said Sonya Romero, who was one of the drivers handcuffed. "We all got cuffed until they figured out who did what."
Ben Barker watched the ordeal and told 7NEWS police were armed with shot guns and rifles.

"We didn't know if we were in the line of fire or what the hell was happening," Romero said.

The Aurora police chief, Daniel Oates, apologized but said "the ends justify the means since the suspect was caught."

Oates called the stops lawful and necessary.
“The law is clear that investigative detentions are lawful for a reasonable period of time,” Oates said. “Reasonableness is determined by the facts and circumstances at issue, and the facts and circumstances were the suspect was in one of 19 cars.”

Caucus and Primary- My Experience

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Tuesday January 03, 2012 · 9:19 AM PST

2012/01/03 · 09:19

Before I moved to Colorado 2005, I lived in Massachusetts where I always voted in primary elections. These were not mail-in ballots, but elections with many convenient polling places and they all stayed opened until early evening.

In 2008 I went to my first caucus in Denver, Colorado. It was held at 7:00 PM, in the gym of a local high school. We were seated in sections arranged by our address. There were people there with signs for candidates and two people led our group. After some brief discussion and a tentative vote, we lined up in groups for Hilary Clinton and Obama and were counted. I think there were far less people there than if it had been an election.

Out of 129,411 Democratic caucus votes statewide, 1,260 were uncommitted and 199 voted for candidates other than Clinton and Obama. Obama won with 80,113 (66.6%) to Clinton’s 38,83 (32.3%). In the Republican caucus out of a total statewide vote of 70,229, Romney got 60.1% of the vote. McCain came in second with 18.4% followed by Huckabee with 12.8%

On March 16, 2010 I attended my second caucus. This time Michael Bennet, former Denver school superintendent (who had been appointed Senator when Ken Salazar was appointed to cabinet) was running against Andrew Romanoff. I favored Romanoff. Shortly before the caucus, a local paper reported on Bennet’s costly funding of the Denver Public Schools with J.P. Morgan. (Bennet “Swap” costs DPS millions)

This time there were five or six young Denver teachers in my group favor of Bennet. When we discussed issues, I brought up the interest that his deal had cost DPS. They knew nothing about it and thought I was talking about credit card interest. Romanoff won by a large margin statewide but lost in the election.

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The FBI and Carter Page- Bugs in the Binders

The Nazis Studied America's Jim Crow Laws as a Model for their anti-Jewish Legislation

A Good Start for Expanding Medicare.

A Few Thought on Voting

Why I Oppose the Immigration Bill

Eric Holder and Voter Suppression

The Bush Deficit

Close the Social Security "Cap" Tax Loophole

Repubs Change the Conversation from Romney's Taxes to Rape

Did Obama Cut $716b from Medicare?

Police Stop, Handcuff Every Adult at Intersection in Search for Bank Robber

Caucus and Primary- My Experience