quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
Eighty-four percent of contractors surveyed by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and Wells Fargo in December cited availability of workers and cost as their most significant problems last year, along with rising materials prices.

Rising prices hell. Availability is a problem. Finding Douglas fir is like looking for a Baptist in Tibet.

“The Director of the CIA is praising President Trump for his tough stance on North Korea.

During an interview Sunday, Mike Pompeo said the president has put tremendous pressure on the rouge nation since he took office.

He believes that pressure has led to Kim Jong Un promising to stop missile testing, and allow exercises by the U.S. and South Korea to continue. …”

http://www.oann.com/cia-direct...-north-korean-talks/

Looks like the HIC is wrapping up their investigation. One down, two to go...


The House Intelligence Committee has finished interviewing witnesses as part of its investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential race, a likely sign the probe is coming to an end, according to reports.

Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), who is overseeing the panel's investigation, is expected to announce on Monday that the committee will move on to writing its final report based on the interviews, a source told CNN.

A spokesperson for Conaway declined to comment to the news outlet.

Democrats have previously said that the Republican-led investigation was not as extensive as they would have liked and that more witnesses needed to be interviewed. They said that the final interviews were rushed and the committee was too lenient in its questioning of witnesses.

While the committee did not interview President Trump, it interviewed some of his closest aides, including former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, former chief strategist Stephen Bannon, Donald Trump Jr. and son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner.

Relations between Democrats and Republicans on the House panel have been fraught, with much of the spotlight centering on tensions between committee Chairman Devin Nunes (Calif.) and ranking member Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). Those partisan tensions came to a head earlier this year with the release of competing memos, one crafted by Republicans and the other by Democrats, concerning alleged surveillance abuses by the FBI and Justice Department.

According to CNN, the committee is expected to produce two reports: a Republican one arguing that no evidence of collusion was found, and a Democratic one making the case for possible collusion and calling for further investigation.

The Senate Intelligence Committee and special counsel Robert Mueller are currently carrying out their own separate investigations into Russian meddling and possible collusion during the 2016 election.

http://thehill.com/regulation/...ussian-investigation

I heard on Hannity recently that it seems that the Meuller investigation may wrap up soon as well.

Tony.

companion to above post

https://apnews.com/dc7c4ec1be1...een-Trump-and-Russia

Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee have completed a draft report concluding there was no collusion or coordination between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia, a finding that is sure to please the White House and enrage panel Democrats.

After a yearlong investigation, Texas Rep. Mike Conaway announced Monday that the committee has finished interviewing witnesses and will share the report with Democrats on Tuesday. Conaway is the Republican leading the House probe, one of several investigations on Russian meddling in the 2016 elections.

Conaway previewed several of the report’s conclusions.

“ We found no evidence of collusion ,” Conaway told reporters Monday, suggesting that those who believe there was are reading too many spy novels. “We found perhaps some bad judgment, inappropriate meetings, inappropriate judgment in taking meetings. But only Tom Clancy or Vince Flynn or someone else like that could take this series of inadvertent contacts with each other, or meetings or whatever, and weave that into sort of a fiction page turner, spy thriller.”

The public will not see the report until Democrats have reviewed it and the intelligence community has decided what information can become public, a process that could take weeks. Democrats are expected to issue a separate report with much different conclusions.

The report is also expected to turn the subject of collusion toward the Clinton campaign, saying an anti-Trump dossier compiled by a former British spy and paid for by Democrats was one way that Russians tried to influence the election. Conaway did not suggest that Clinton knowingly coordinated with the Russians, but said the dossier clearly “would have hurt him and helped her.”

He also said there was no evidence that anything “untoward” happened at a 2016 meeting between members of the Trump campaign and Russians, though he called it ill-advised. Despite a promise of dirt on Clinton ahead of the meeting, there’s no evidence that such material was exchanged, he said.

The Senate Intelligence Committee is also investigating the Russian intervention, and is expected to have a bipartisan report out in the coming weeks dealing with election security. The Senate panel is expected to issue findings on the more controversial issue of coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia at a later date.

sdy...thank you for your posts ...they add so much to SIGForum keeping us up to date

http://www.breitbart.com/big-g...confiscation-orders/

"White House agrees with aggressive California tactics to take away your guns" could be a legit summary of this article.

I don't know the current law regarding a judges ability to take guns from someone who has yet to commit a crime, but it sounds like it is legal in CA, and if this article is true....

quote:

Originally posted by SigMaverick:
http://www.breitbart.com/big-g...confiscation-orders/

"White House agrees with aggressive California tactics to take away your guns" could be a legit summary of this article.

I don't know the current law regarding a judges ability to take guns from someone who has yet to commit a crime, but it sounds like it is legal in CA, and if this article is true....

Here is a summary used in Orange County.

Here is the state order form.

adding:

Sara Carter:

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper allegedly leaked information to CNN early last year regarding the classified briefings given to then President-Elect Donald Trump and President Barrack Obama on the salacious dossier claiming the Russians had compromising information on the president-elect, according to government sources, who noted the evidence of the leak was collected during the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia investigation.

Clapper, who was one of four senior Obama administration officials to attend the briefing with the presidents, also stated his “profound dismay at the leaks” in an official statement issued in January, 2017 and warned that the leaks were “extremely corrosive and damaging” to national security, according to his press release.

https://saraacarter.com/former...estigation-revealed/

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
7 minutes long, but

The President of United Steel Workers Union makes Chuck Todd quite uncomfortable

https://youtu.be/Rd2mei3rppc

enjoyable

Trump lost to Clinton in Minnesota by less than 2 points in 2016. Northern Minnesota lives and dies by iron ore mining. The unions up there are singing Trumps praises right now. I'm betting Minnesota flips in 2020 to Trump.
Think about that for a minute. Minnesota flipping to red is a real possibility!

quote:

Think about that for a minute. Minnesota flipping to red is a real possibility!

[Jack Benny voice] I'm thinking! I'm thinking! [/Jack Benny voice]

The news that the House intel comm will claim that James Clapper leaked the dossier to CNN in Jan 2017 is a big deal.

Here is Clapper in Jan 2017 (a year ago):

https://www.marketwatch.com/st...a-dossier-2017-01-12

President-elect Donald Trump spoke Wednesday evening to U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper after a bruising 24-hour period in which details of an intelligence briefing to Trump were leaked to the press and the incoming president compared the release of unsubstantiated allegations in a dossier to Nazi Germany.

Clapper said in a statement that he expressed his dismay to Trump over leaks about the briefing, and said the release of the dossier, a private report compiled at the behest of Trump’s political opponents, was not the fault of the U.S. intelligence community , which he said only became aware of it after it had been circulating among the media, members of Congress and congressional aides.

Clapper was among intelligence officials who briefed Trump last Friday on the results of U.S. investigations into election-related cyberhacking, explaining conclusions that the hacking was ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin in order to help Trump. As part of that briefing, officials provided Trump with a synopsis of the unsubstantiated allegations in the private report, which Clapper emphasized was not a U.S. intelligence report.

“We also discussed the private security company document,” Clapper said. “I emphasized that this document is not a U.S. Intelligence Community product and that I do not believe the leaks came from within the IC. The IC has not made any judgment that the information in this document is reliable, and we did not rely upon it in any way for our conclusions. However, part of our obligation is to ensure that policymakers are provided with the fullest possible picture of any matters that might affect national security.”

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The dossier was the main rational for the Oct 2016 FISA warrant against Carter Page, and in Jan 2017, the FBI was about to get another 90 day extension of that Carter Page FISA warrant.

An investigation had been ongoing for over 5 months in Jan 2017. An investigation that was targeted on the claims that the Trump campaign had colluded with the Russians to interfere in the 2016 election.

Joey D 3/12/18

Trump fired Tillerson at State this morning and appointed Pompeo from CIA to take his place. He is appointing first female head of the CIA - Gina Haspel.

Good background on Haspel from an article when she was appointed Deputy Director. Everything the NY Times tries to paint as a negative, is a positive.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/0...orture-thailand.html

New C.I.A. Deputy Director, Gina Haspel, Had Leading Role in Torture

WASHINGTON — As a clandestine officer at the Central Intelligence Agency in 2002, Gina Haspel oversaw the torture of two terrorism suspects and later took part in an order to destroy videotapes documenting their brutal interrogations at a secret prison in Thailand.

On Thursday, Ms. Haspel was named the deputy director of the C.I.A.

The elevation of Ms. Haspel, a veteran widely respected among her colleagues, to the No. 2 job at the C.I.A. was a rare public signal of how, under the Trump administration, the agency is being led by officials who appear to take a far kinder view of one of its darker chapters than their immediate predecessors.

Over the past eight years, C.I.A. leaders defended dozens of agency personnel who had taken part in the now-banned torture program, even as they vowed never to resume the same harsh interrogation methods. But President Trump has said repeatedly that he thinks torture works. And the new C.I.A. chief, Mike Pompeo, has said that waterboarding and other techniques do not even constitute torture, and praised as “patriots” those who used such methods in the early days of the fight against Al Qaeda.

Ms. Haspel, who has spent most of her career undercover, would certainly fall within Mr. Pompeo’s description. She played a direct role in the C.I.A.’s “extraordinary rendition program,” under which captured militants were handed to foreign governments and held at secret facilities, where they were tortured by agency personnel.

The C.I.A.’s first overseas detention site was in Thailand. It was run by Ms. Haspel, who oversaw the brutal interrogations of two detainees, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

Mr. Zubaydah alone was waterboarded 83 times in a single month, had his head repeatedly slammed into walls and endured other harsh methods before interrogators decided he had no useful information to provide.

Continue reading the main story
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RELATED COVERAGE

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The sessions were videotaped and the recordings stored in a safe at the C.I.A. station in Thailand until 2005, when they were ordered destroyed. By then, Ms. Haspel was serving at C.I.A. headquarters, and it was her name that was on the cable carrying the destruction orders.

The agency maintains that the decision to destroy the recordings was made by Ms. Haspel’s boss at the time, Jose Rodriguez, who was the head of the C.I.A.’s clandestine service.

But years later, when the C.I.A. wanted to name Ms. Haspel to run clandestine operations, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, then the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, blocked the promotion over Ms. Haspel’s role in the interrogation program and the destruction of the tapes.

On Thursday, critics of the C.I.A. questioned the choice of Ms. Haspel.

Mr. Pompeo “must explain to the American people how his promotion of someone allegedly involved in running a torture site squares with his own sworn promises to Congress that he will reject all forms of torture and abuse,” said Christopher Anders, the deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s office in Washington.

The conflicting views of Ms. Haspel were clear in the reactions to her promotion on Thursday from members of Congress. Democrats expressed concern about how she would approach the issue of torture, while Republicans were fulsome in their praise.

Representative Devin Nunes, Republican of California and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Ms. Haspel had “impressed us with her dedication, forthrightness, and her deep commitment to the intelligence community.”

Within the C.I.A., Ms. Haspel is similarly respected, and the agency’s announcement about her promotion came with a long list of testimonials from retired officials, much as prominent authors write blurbs for the back of other writers’ books. The list notably included prominent Obama administration officials, such as James R. Clapper Jr., the former director of national intelligence (“very pleased”), and Michael J. Morell, who twice served as the C.I.A.’s acting director (“I applaud the appointment”).

The praise for Ms. Haspel, despite her role in torturing detainees, reflects the agency’s ambivalent attitude toward those who participated in the interrogation program. The Bush administration declared the methods legal, and the view within the C.I.A. was that those who used the techniques were doing their jobs.

At the same time, many at the agency have little eagerness to see torture return. Where Ms. Haspel falls on the issue is not clear — as an undercover C.I.A. official, she was not offering public opinions on government policy — and neither she nor Mr. Pompeo could order agency personnel to resume the practice, because it is now against the law.

Mr. Pompeo’s decision to elevate Ms. Haspel is also likely to be seen by the C.I.A.’s rank-and-file as a vote of confidence in their work from their new director, despite Mr. Trump’s dismissal of the intelligence community throughout his campaign and in the months between his election and inauguration.

The open disdain with which Mr. Trump mocked the C.I.A., especially after intelligence agencies said they believed that Russia had tried to swing the election in his favor, had raised concerns at the agency of a repeat of the unhappy tenure of a former director, Porter J. Goss.

Mr. Goss took over the C.I.A. in 2004, when the agency was widely viewed as being at odds with the Bush administration over the Iraq war, and his marching orders were to end what the White House viewed as a campaign of leaks by insiders who opposed administration policies. He lasted only 13 months after his attempt to crack down on leaks drove many veterans out of the C.I.A.

Trump Fires Rex Tillerson Over Iran Disagreement; Replaces Him With CIA Chief Mike Pompeo

Update 3:

President Trump tells reporters that he and Tillerson disagreed on Iran, that he made the North Korea decision himself and thinks Tillerson will be "much happier now."

Meanwhile, according to Steve Goldstein, undersecretary for public diplomacy, said Rex Tillerson wanted to stay. "The Secretary had every intention of staying, because of critical progress made in national security," Goldstein said. "He will miss his colleagues at the Department of State and the foreign ministers that he’s worked with throughout the world."

The official added that Tillerson didn't get to speak with President Trump and doesn't know why. "The Secretary did not speak to the President and is unaware of the reason," he said. "He is grateful for the opportunity to serve and believes public service is a noble calling. He wishes secretary-designate Pompeo well."

* * *

Update 2:

Confirming the WaPo's reporting, a senior administration official told CNN that President Trump asked Tillerson to step aside on Friday. “POTUS thought it was the right time for the transition with the upcoming North Korea talks and various trade negotiations. POTUS asked Tillerson to step aside on Friday."

CNN also notes that president Trump has wanted Mike Pompeo as his secretary of state for months now, and the White House began planning for him to take this job last fall.

Trump’s anger at Tillerson after it leaked that he called him “a moron” never subsided, and many in the White House saw their differences as irreconcilable.

Tillerson had few, if any, allies left in the West Wing. Though Chief of Staff John Kelly was initially on his side when he took over, he eventually grew weary of defending him — especially after the “moron” remark, which Kelly saw as insubordination on Tillerson’s part.

Ultimately, according to sources close to the President "it was clear Tillerson didn’t support Trump." They say Tillerson wanted to handle foreign policy his own way, without the President. Trump didn’t feel that Tillerson backed him, source says.

* * *

Update 1:

Mike Pompeo has issued the following brief statement sent to the press, saying he was "grateful" to have worked for the CIA.

"I am deeply grateful to President Trump for permitting me to serve as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and for this opportunity to serve as Secretary of State. His leadership has made America safer and I look forward to representing him and the American people to the rest of the world to further America’s prosperity.

Serving alongside the great men and women of the CIA, the most dedicated and talented public servants I have encountered, has been one of the great honors of my life. I am proud of the work we have done on behalf of America and know that the Agency will continue to thrive under the leadership of Gina Haspel.

If confirmed, I look forward to guiding the world’s finest diplomatic corps in formulating and executing the President’s foreign policy. In my time as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, I have worked alongside many remarkable Foreign Service officers and Department of State leaders serving here in the United States and on the very edge of freedom. I know I will learn from them and, as President Trump set out in his State of the Union Address, work hard to ensure that 'our nation will forever be safe and strong and proud and mighty and free.'"

* * *

Earlier:

Back in December we asked "Will CIA Director Mike Pompeo Replace Rex Tillerson As Secretary Of State?" The answer, as of moments ago, is yes. Moments ago, the WaPo first reported, and then President Trump tweeted, that he has ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replaced him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, launching a major change to his national security team amid delicate negotiations with North Korea.

Tillerson had learned his fate last Friday, according to the Washington Post, when Trump asked Tillerson to step aside, causing the embattled top diplomat cut short his trip to Africa on Monday to return to Washington, using illness as an alibi.

Mike Pompeo will replace the former Exxon CEO at the State Department, while Gina Hapsel — the deputy director at the CIA — will Pompeo at the CIA, becoming the first woman to run the spy agency, if confirmed.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news...ia-chief-mike-pompeo

I'm reading this morning that Trump fired Rex Tillerson over Twitter and didn't meet with him face to face first? I find that hard to believe, probably just more MSM bullshit from "unconfirmed" sources.

quote:

New C.I.A. Deputy Director, Gina Haspel...

She sounds perfect.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
I'm reading this morning that Trump fired Rex Tillerson over Twitter and didn't meet with him face to face first? I find that hard to believe, probably just more MSM bullshit from "unconfirmed" sources.

That's fake news - Trump told him Friday and Tillerson cut his Africa trip short to return home.

https://www.washingtonpost.com...tter_impression=true

Trump may not have fired him over Twitter, but he didn't fire him face to face either. Quote from WaPo article; "The news was not conveyed in person by Trump." Tillerson was in Africa when he got the news.

Who cares? President Trump could fire the guy by CandyGram for all I care. You guys want to make something of him firing a guy that's halfway around the world? BFD

Be sure to pick up your "I was brainwashed by the lying leftist news media" t-shirts.