https://www.bloomberg.com/poli...-s-dismayed-by-leaks

U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said he has told Donald Trump that the leak of a classified report that details unsubstantiated claims that Russia has compiled damaging information on the president-elect probably didn’t come from U.S. spy agencies.

“I expressed my profound dismay at the leaks that have been appearing in the press, and we both agreed that they are extremely corrosive and damaging to our national security,” Clapper said.

“James Clapper called me yesterday to denounce the false and fictitious report that was illegally circulated,” Trump said

Clapper did indicate that he had briefed policy makers on its existence, however, saying he was obligated to ensure they “are provided with the fullest possible picture of any matters that might affect national security.” But, Clapper said, the intelligence community hadn’t made any judgment on whether the claims within the document were reliable.

****************
so our vaunted CIA and FBI have had some of this info for months, but can't figure out if is true. Read the 35 pages. This is hard to figure out ?

**************************

https://www.yahoo.com/news/the...h-spy-004221154.html

The man behind the sensational story concerning information the Russian government had supposedly collected about Donald Trump is a former British intelligence operative and was a longtime intelligence source for the U.S. government who had assisted the FBI during an investigation into corruption by FIFA, the world soccer association,

The operative — identified today by the Wall Street Journal as Christopher Steele, a former Russian operations officer for Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency — had worked as a consultant for the FBI’s Eurasian organized crime section, helping to develop information about ties between suspected Russian gangsters and FIFA, said one of the sources, who is directly familiar with Steele’s work.

The preexisting relationship between Steele and U.S. officials is one reason the FBI took the operative’s allegations seriously when he first turned over a written dossier, filled with uncorroborated “raw intelligence” about Trump, to one of the bureau’s agents in Rome last summer, the sources said.

A senior law enforcement official declined to talk about the nature of Steele’s relationship with the FBI. But the official confirmed that he was known to the FBI and that the bureau had already obtained copies of his reports months before Sen. John McCain handed FBI Director James Comey a dossier of Steele’s material in December. Asked why a two-page summary of the uncorroborated reports was included as part of last week’s intelligence briefing on Russian hacking, the official said that “it was an intelligence community decision” to do so after officials learned that his reports had been widely circulating among members of Congress and journalists. “It seemed very clear that these were going to see the light of day in the next couple of weeks,” the official said. The conclusion was that “it might be a good idea to tell [Trump] about them before they were publicly released.”

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said he has told Donald Trump that the leak of a classified report that details unsubstantiated claims that Russia has compiled damaging information on the president-elect probably didn’t come from U.S. spy agencies.

The Consumer Confidence Index is one of the most important of future economy growth. From Zacks:
http://go.steadyinvestor.com/w...90c74164c88b715f6923

U.S. consumer confidence peaked to record highs in December, as suggested by recent surveys.
The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index climbed to 113.7 (1985=100) - the highest level since August 2001. It moved +4.3 points higher than November’s level, while beating the prior forecast of 109 (according to Bloomberg reports).

Notwithstanding a decline in sentiments on current conditions, the measure of consumer expectations soared to 105.5, the highest level since December 2003 and therefore, accounted solely for the overall confidence index’s December surge. The expectation gauge rose +11.1 points from the preceding month’s level.

Following are some highlights of specific areas covered by the Board’s survey:

Outlook on Business Conditions: The proportion of Americans with an improved outlook on the next six months’ business conditions is 23.6%, the largest since February 11, and up from the previous share of 16.4%. The share of respondents expecting business conditions to deteriorate fell from 9.9% to 8.7%

Outlook on Labor Market:
At 21% compared to the previous share of 16.1%, a greater share of consumers expects to see more job creation in the coming months. Although the percentage of people predicting fewer jobs also increased, it did by a much smaller margin of +0.5 points.
The share of consumers hopeful of higher incomes increased from 17.4% to 21%. The percentage expecting a decrease in incomes declined from 9.2% to 8.6%. Which means, the share differential between the two consumer groups widened to 12.4 points, the largest gap since January 2007.
Outlook on Stock Markets: Proportion of consumers expecting higher share prices in 2017 increased to 44.7% in December, the largest since January 2004.

University of Michigan’s Index of Consumer Sentiment increased +4.7 points from November’s level to reach 98.2 in December, its highest level since January 2004.


Source: Survey of Consumers, University of Michigan

The University’s gauge of consumer expectations climbed to 89.5, up from November’s 85.2. The measure of Americans’ sentiment on current economic conditions improved from the previous month’s 107.3 up to 111.9.


Source: Survey of Consumers, University of Michigan

Bottom Line for Investors

The surge in U.S. consumers’ optimism is largely believed to be a result of their expectations for Donald Trump’s presidency. Trump’s proposed policies, including boosting domestic employment cutting tax rates and raising infrastructure spending, have potentially heightened Americans’ hopes for more jobs, better salaries and higher equity/portfolio returns.

The higher optimism among Americans could possibly offer tailwinds to household spending & investments. But more than short-term expectations, what will eventually drive economic growth are consistent long-term fundamentals – which are likely to strengthen in the coming years. The unemployment rate is predicted to fall to 4.4% next year and to 4.3% in 2018 (versus 2016’s 4.8%). The real GDP is expected to grow at +2.1% in 2017, up from 2016’s +1.7%. For Q1 2017, the projected S&P 500 earnings growth is +10.4% - a marked improvement from the estimated +3.4% in Q4 2016 (According to Zacks Investment Managements Economic Outlook report).

Which sectors/companies would likely be the biggest growth contributors in coming years? And, which are losing out? These are critical questions when it comes to building your nest egg. We can help you get the answers and assist you in planning your financial future effectively. To learn more, please call us at your convenience at 1-800-918-3114.

In the meantime, check out our just-released Economic Outlook report to get insights into economic variables including employment, GDP, inflation and much more. To download your copy, click on the link below:

http://go.steadyinvestor.com/w...90c74164c88b715f6923

41

Why doesn't the media move to Hollywood, as that is the way they act, like a made for TV show?
They aren't even as good as a theater movie, a b grade movie if that term is used anymore?

quote:

Originally posted by wishfull thinker:


It's a stretch, but I'm good with it.

When I watched Trump's conference, I thought it was a "Do Not Enter" sign. I had to really look closely to realize it was The White House in front of a red background.

I had initially thought someone was getting clever at the news agency and superimposing the graphic over another insignia.

Tony.

The MSM will spin damned near anything!




It's a parody! LOL

quote:

Originally posted by Fenris:
Has anyone else notice that the Pres Elect seal looks like a "Do Not Enter" sign?

Subliminal messaging?

So does your avatar.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: parabellum,

Andrew Napolitano: Why the criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton is back to front and center



The criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton is back front and center now that the FBI has released proof that her failure to safeguard state secrets caused the secrets to fall into the hands of foreign governments, some of which wish the United States ill.

Even though the case against her -- which was closed and then reopened and then closed again -- is old news and she obviously is no longer a candidate to become president of the United States and has been staying below the radar for the past two months, recent developments have regenerated the case.

Here is the back story.

On July 5, FBI Director James Comey announced publicly that the FBI would recommend against seeking an indictment of Clinton for espionage -- the failure to safeguard state secrets that had been entrusted to her. He argued that though the case against her was strong -- as secretary of state, she had been extremely careless with secrets; exposed hundreds of materials that were confidential, secret and top-secret; and used non-secure mobile devices while in the territory of hostile governments -- no reasonable prosecutor would take the case.

Why was the decision of whether to prosecute Clinton left to Comey?

The FBI’s job is to gather evidence of federal crimes and to present that evidence to career prosecutors in the Department of Justice for evaluation. The FBI has numerous investigative tools available to it. One of those tools is presenting evidence to a grand jury and requesting subpoenas from it. Another is presenting evidence to a federal judge and requesting search warrants from the judge. A third is obtaining the indictment of someone who is in the inner circle of the person who is the true target of the investigation and then persuading that indicted person to become a government witness.

None of those tools was used in the Clinton case.

As well, a major interference with the case occurred when Attorney General Loretta Lynch agreed to meet privately with former President Bill Clinton. He was -- and still is -- also the subject of an FBI criminal investigation. Though both Lynch and Mr. Clinton denied talking about the investigations, the attorney general took herself and senior DOJ management off the Hillary Clinton case, leaving the FBI director with the authority to decide whether to prosecute. So based on Comey’s decision that no reasonable prosecutor would take the case against Mrs. Clinton, it was closed.

The case was briefly reopened 11 days before Election Day. The FBI announced it had stumbled upon a potential treasure-trove of emails contained in a laptop jointly owned and used by Hillary Clinton’s closest aide, Huma Abedin, and her husband, former Rep. Anthony Weiner. The FBI believed at the time that the laptop contained nearly every email Abedin had received from Clinton. Weiner was under investigation for various sexual crimes, and the FBI had obtained the laptop in its search for evidence against him.

Then, a week later, the FBI announced that it had found nothing among the 650,000 emails in the laptop that would cause it to reopen the Clinton case, and it closed the case a second time.

Donald Trump argued during the last weeks of the presidential election campaign that Clinton had exposed state secrets to hostile foreign governments. FBI agents who disagreed with their boss’s decision not to seek the indictment of Clinton made the same arguments. Clinton denied vehemently that she had caused any state secrets to pass into the hands of hostile foreign governments.

Then Trump was elected president of the United States.

Then Clinton left the public scene.

Then, last Sunday evening, during the NFL playoff game between the New York Giants and the Green Bay Packers, the FBI posted on its website more than 300 emails that Clinton had sent to an unnamed colleague not in the government -- no doubt her adviser Sid Blumenthal -- that had fallen into the hands of foreign powers. It turns out -- and the Sunday night release proves this -- that Blumenthal was hacked by intelligence agents from at least three foreign governments and that they obtained the emails Clinton had sent to him that contained state secrets. Sources believe that the hostile hackers were the Russians and the Chinese and the friendly hackers were the Israelis.

Last Sunday’s revelations make the case against Clinton far more serious than Comey presented it to be last summer. Indeed, Sen. Jeff Sessions, who has been nominated by Trump to be attorney general and who has been a harsh critic of Clinton's, told the Senate Judiciary Committee this week that he would step aside from any further investigation of Clinton, thereby acknowledging that the investigation will probably be opened again.

One of the metrics that the DOJ examines in deciding whether to prosecute is an analysis of harm caused by the potential defendant. I have examined the newly released emails, and the state secrets have been whited out. Yet it is clear from the FBI analysis of them that real secrets were exposed by the nation’s chief diplomat -- meaning she violated an agreement she signed right after she took office, in which she essentially promised that she would not do what she eventually did.

The essence of the American justice system is the rule of law. The rule of law means that no one is beneath the law’s protections or above its obligations.

Should Clinton skate free so the Trump administration can turn the page? Should the new DOJ be compassionate toward Clinton because of her humiliating election loss and likely retirement from public life? Of course not. She should be prosecuted as would anyone else who let loose secrets to our enemies and then lied about it.

Not long now...

does Hollywood have some weird masochistic affliction ?

another pathetic attempt at expressing themselves.

https://youtu.be/bTYidWBC8-4

Emma Stone, Natalie Portman, and Amy Adams are among the many movie stars who joined in to sing Gloria Gaynor’s 1979 hit “I Will Survive” ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration.

The star-studded cast, including Matthew McConaughey, Hailee Steinfeld, Felicity Jones, and Taraji P. Henson, all trade verses on the disco hit, with some ad-libbing their own lines.

While Donald Trump’s name is never mentioned, the video is apparently intended to serve as a rallying cry for those still grieving Trump’s election.


http://www.breitbart.com/big-h...-trump-inauguration/

Trump’s CNN tirade may affect Time Warner-AT&T merger



Is this any way to start off a relationship?

Nine days before CNN parent Time Warner will have to negotiate with Donald Trump’s antitrust cops, the cable news network got a dressing down by the President-elect.

“Your organization is terrible,” Trump told CNN reporter Jim Acosta when he tried to ask a question during Wednesday’s news conference.

“Quiet, quiet,” Trump admonished when it was clear the journalist would not be chosen for a question.

As Acosta persisted, Trump said, “Don’t be rude.” When that didn’t work, Trump barked: “You are fake news.”

The confrontation grew from a controversial story CNN published Tuesday about Trump being presented at a Jan. 6 meeting with intelligence experts a two-page synopsis with allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information on the president-elect.

Both Trump and Russian authorities called the claims nonsense.

While Trump’s rebuke was stark enough, it came as his Justice Department will start to investigate the antitrust implications of AT&T’s $85 billion merger with Time Warner.

Trump said on the campaign trail that he wouldn’t approve the deal.

It was much debated in media circles if the press conference run-in would move the needle on Trump’s stance.

Some pondered whether Time Warner would have to sell off CNN to get the deal approved.

“If AT&T had to spin off CNN to get the deal approved, I suspect they would be willing to do so,” said analyst Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson.

“Based on everything AT&T has said publicly, their principal interest is in Time Warner’s entertainment properties, not their news business.”

The AT&T acquisition which comes not long after a deal to acquire satellite TV provider DirecTV, will be scrutinized both by the House Judiciary Committee and by Justice.

“The CNN story puts an exclamation mark on the deal and what’s always been the biggest risk to this deal — political concerns in the White House,” Cowen & Co. analyst Paul Gallant, told The Post.

BuzzFeed, which published the document containing the alleged claims, came in for even harsher criticism from Trump.

“As far as BuzzFeed, which is a failing pile of garbage, writing it, I think they’re going to suffer the consequences,” Trump said.

Attorney General-nominee Jeff Sessions, at his confirmation hearing on Tuesday, said it would be “wrong to further some other separate discrete agenda that’s not reasonably connected to the merger itself.”

BuzzFeed Chief Executive Jonah Peretti sent a note to staff saying he stood by the decision to publish the document. BuzzFeed is partly backed by NBCUniversal.

One top media lawyer said it would hard for Trump to sue BuzzFeed, since the press has broad protections.



http://nypost.com/2017/01/12/t...e-warner-att-merger/

you don't want to sue the media - you want to marginalize them and starve them of information so they're reduced to having to scavenge off other media outlets

that's the way to kill them

https://www.bloomberg.com/news...in-campaign-ixuory4e

Justice Dept Auditor to Open Probe of FBI Actions in Campaign

Justice Dept. inspector general to review actions by FBI and DOJ officials in advance of 2016 election

Developing...

******************

Clinton Campaign may regret this. Fires it up again.

*********************

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/12...or-general-says.html

Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz said on Thursday he will review how the FBI and Justice Department handled certain aspects of Hillary Clinton's email investigation.

The review will include FBI Director James Comey's news conference in July and his two letters to the Hill in late October and early November.

Before the Nov. 8 election, Comey sent a letter to lawmakers that said the FBI discovered new emails related to Clinton. They were found as part of an on-going probe of disgraced former New York congressman Anthony Weiner. The FBI later said it would not change its conclusion.

"Allegations that decisions regarding the timing of the FBI's release of certain Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) documents on October 30 and November 1, 2016, and the use of a Twitter account to publicize same, were influenced by improper considerations," Horowitz said in a statement.

The review comes in response to requests from "numerous Chairmen and Ranking Members of Congressional oversight committees, various organizations, and members of the public," the department said.

The review will not substitute the Office of the Inspector General's judgment for the judgments made by the FBI or the Department regarding the substantive merits of investigative or prosecutive decisions, the department said.

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
does Hollywood have some weird masochistic affliction ?

another pathetic attempt at expressing themselves.

https://youtu.be/bTYidWBC8-4

Emma Stone, Natalie Portman, and Amy Adams are among the many movie stars who joined in to sing Gloria Gaynor’s 1979 hit “I Will Survive” ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration.

The star-studded cast, including Matthew McConaughey, Hailee Steinfeld, Felicity Jones, and Taraji P. Henson, all trade verses on the disco hit, with some ad-libbing their own lines.

While Donald Trump’s name is never mentioned, the video is apparently intended to serve as a rallying cry for those still grieving Trump’s election.


http://www.breitbart.com/big-h...-trump-inauguration/

At least some of them live in reality. Ok, well, semi-reality.

I'd guess that being married to a country singer, albeit one from Australia, has something to do with Kidman being somewhat grounded on this topic.

Nicole Kidman says the country needs to get behind President Trump

Published January 12, 2017
FoxNews.com


The actress, who was born in Hawaii but raised in Australia, said it's time to let go and accept the results of the election.

"[Trump is] now elected and we, as a country, need to support whoever is the president," Kidman said on the red carpet for her new film "Lion."

The actress, who lives in Nashville with her country superstar husband and holds dual Australian and American citizenship, added, "That is what the country is based on. And however that happened, it happened, and let's go."

Kidman's opinion differs greatly from most of her Hollywood colleagues. Most recently, Meryl Streep was praised by her fellow celebrities for standing up against the President-elect in her Golden Globes acceptance speech.


However, there are some stars who are sick of their fellow entertainers' political rants.

Country star Travis Tritt said on Twitter earlier this week, "If you have fans who respect your talent enough to spend hard earned money to see your talent, be thankful and gracious and leave it at that."

Piers Morgan echoed Tritt's words, adding he hasn't "heard such elitist snobbery since Hillary Clinton branded Trump supporters 'a basket of deplorables.'"

http://www.foxnews.com/enterta...president-trump.html

Former MI-6 spy known to U.S. agencies is author of reports on Trump in Russia

JFC can this get any more bizarre?!

quote:

Originally posted by porterdog:
JFC can this get any more bizarre?!

Hopefully so. These people are making fools of themselves in their efforts get The Donald. There's no denying that CNN stepped in it in a big way. They look like the biased political activist chuckleheads they are.

While I agree, let them waddle in the pile of pig crap they created, and continue to fill, hopefully it won't become a distraction or detriment to getting the agenda done by the R party and Trump.

We don't need a stalled congress while we have the numbers to achieve things, and typically while D gather around their own and protect them some R tend to do the opposite such as Rubio on Tillerson.

Rubio needs a swift kick in the balls...