Firm Linked to Hunter Biden and Burisma Lobbied for Ukrainian Group Accused of Smearing Anti-Corruption Organization (VIDEO)

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A Democratic consulting firm linked to Hunter Biden and Burisma Holdings registered to lobby in 2017 for a Ukrainian organization that has been accused of smearing an anti-corruption group in the eastern European country, according to government records.

Blue Star Strategies, which was co-founded by two veterans of the Clinton administration, registered to lobby in September 2017 for National Interest of Ukraine (NIU), a shadowy organization linked to the People’s Front, a political party that promotes Ukrainian nationalism.

Daria Kaleniuk, the executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, or AnTac, has recently alleged that NIU hired Blue Star Strategies to “discredit” her group. . .

In one of several odd twists involving Ukraine-related matters, Joe Biden’s presidential campaign cited Kaleniuk in a video supporting the former vice president against allegations leveled by Trump allies that he improperly intervened to help Burisma Holdings on behalf of his son.

(Read more from “Firm Linked to Hunter Biden and Burisma Lobbied for Ukrainian Group Accused of Smearing Anti-Corruption Organization (VIDEO)” HERE)

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Christopher Steele Refuses to Cooperate With U.S. Prosecutor Looking Into Origins of Trump-Russia Probe

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Dossier author Christopher Steele will not cooperate with U.S. Attorney John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, telling an audience at Oxford University that he believes U.S. investigators have acted in “bad faith.”

Steele, a former British spy, said at the Oxford event on Friday that he and his firm, Orbis Business Intelligence, had already “done our duty” by cooperating with a Justice Department inspector general’s (IG) investigation of the FBI’s surveillance of Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

According to The Daily Beast, which attended the Oxford event, Steele also criticized the IG, saying that he cooperated with the probe for “four or five months,” and observed “very bad qualities” on the part of government officials. He said some acted in “bad faith.”

Reuters reported on Friday that Durham’s team has recently approached Steele seeking an interview. The former MI6 officer rejected the request because he believes that he would not be treated fairly, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Numerous questions remain unanswered about how Steele collected information for his dossier, and how many of his allegations about Trump associates turned out to be inaccurate. (Read more from “Christopher Steele Refuses to Cooperate With U.S. Prosecutor Looking Into Origins of Trump-Russia Probe” HERE)

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Market Mayhem: Oil Crashes, U.S. Stock Futures Tank, Bond Yields Plummet, and Trading Curbs Kick in

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Sharp declines in U.S. stock index futures triggered trading curbs meant to slow panicked markets as the price of oil fell by more than 30 percent and bond yields crashed amid heightened worries over the coronavirus.

E-mini futures on the S&P 500 dropped by 5 percent in overnight trading Sunday, triggering automatic trading curbs that kick-in when the price falls below 5 percent of the closing price of the referenced index Friday. As a result, the futures contract cannot trade at a lower price until the cash market opens at 9:30 a.m., although trades may still be made at higher prices.

The last time futures trading hit the overnight limit was election night of 2016, when markets initially sold off following the news that Donald Trump had won the election. That selling pressure quickly subsided and the major indexes closed up by around 1 percent or so the following day.

The E-mini is an electronically traded futures contract based on the underlying S&P 500 index. The contracts are around one-fifth the size of the standard S&P futures contracts, earning them the monicker “mini.” They are considered highly liquid and are widely traded but they have, in a few past episodes, been prone to so-called “flash crashes.” . . .

Oil prices crashed more than 30 percent Sunday night after Saudia Arabia on Saturday slashed official crude prices for April following the collapse of talks between OPEC+, which includes the traditional OPEC nations plus Russia. Oil had fallen sharply on Friday following the news that talks had fallen apart but took an even deeper tumble, falling an additional 20 percent or so, when it became apparent that the once allied oil producers were now engaged in a price war to take market share from each other. (Read more from “Market Mayhem: Oil Crashes, U.S. Stock Futures Tank, Bond Yields Plummet, and Trading Curbs Kick in” HERE)

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Quarter of Italy’s Population Quarantined Due to Coronavirus

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Italy has shut down the entire region of Lombardy and an additional 14 northern and central provinces, quarantining a quarter of the nation’s population, as the country faces the worst outbreak of the Wuhan coronavirus in Europe.

Over 16 million people, including those in Milan and Venice, will be banned from travelling, barring those with special permission, under the government’s strict quarantine measures.

Public spaces such as schools, nightclubs, museums, gyms, ski resorts, and swimming pools will all be closed until at least April 3rd.

Large events such as weddings, funerals, and cultural and religious events will also be banned during the quarantine, according to to the BBC.

Restaurants and cafes will be permitted to be open between six in the morning and six in the evening, but customers will be forced to sit at least one meter (3 feet) apart from each other.

(Read more from “Quarter of Italy’s Population Quarantined Due to Coronavirus” HERE)

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The Dems Are Right. Americans Find Annoying Liberal Women Very Annoying.

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Mark your calendars because today is the day Townhall Senior Columnist Kurt Schlichter agreed with Big Chief Warren and Scat Francisco Congresscreature Nancy Pelosi. Yes, they are correct that Americans rejected Sitting Bolshevik because she was a woman, specifically, because she was a very, very annoying woman who, besides her track record of tacky lies, was very, very annoying in a uniquely female way. Putting aside that she is the Bud Light of faculty lounge socialism, Americans had no desire to spend four years with some national librarian in the Oval Office pestering us about using our inside voices and demanding that we share the toys we bought with the kids who broke theirs. . .

Of course, the male-identifying Crusty Commie Curmudgeon and Not-Senile Joe are annoying too. Like special snowflakes, Democrats are all irritating in their own special ways. But it’s true that Warren, and other females like Felonia Milhous von Pantsuit, are tiresome in specific ways unique to women. See, men and women are different, so awful men and awful women can bother us in different ways.

This is where the libs freak out because I am pointing out the indisputable fact that men and women are different – an observation Warren would outlaw if she ever got power, which she won’t because the vast majority of Americans find her very irritating. I agree with the liberal feminists who insist that men and women are different, though they do it in order to caterwaul that women are better than men. I disagree with that. Men and women are equally terrible when they are liberal, but sometimes they are terrible in ways unique to their gender identification.

So, when Warren and others insinuated, as she reached the end of her trail of phony beers and quit the race, that the reason for her total defeat was that Americans would not vote for a woman, she was partially right. Americans would not vote for a woman like her because she is a very, very annoying woman. The same is true of Stumbles McMyturn. We dislike her too because she is annoying, and it’s a very specifically female kind of annoying. (Read more from “The Dems Are Right. Americans Find Annoying Liberal Women Very Annoying.” HERE)

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Top GOP Lawmaker Accuses Democrats of Intentionally Delaying Coronavirus Bill to Score Political Points

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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) alleged Sunday that Democrats intentionally delayed the coronavirus relief bill in order to run Super Tuesday ads.

On Friday, President Donald Trump signed an emergency bill providing $8.3 billion for the government’s response to the coronavirus. But McCarthy said Trump could have signed the bill one week earlier. . .

Speaking to Fox News host Laura Ingraham last Tuesday, McCarthy accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of withholding the bill to benefit Democrats on Super Tuesday.

“Look how much politics they want to play. The dirty little secret. We have the coronavirus. We need to fund this. You know what Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker, did? She withheld the bill last week. You know why? So the DCCC could run ads against seven Republicans,” he said.

“I don’t know how many ran, but they actually took the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, spent money, went into these seven Republican seats to campaign against them about the coronavirus when she’s the Speaker of the House. Instead of putting America first, she put her politics first and kept the bill from coming to the floor,” McCarthy explained. (Read more from “Top GOP Lawmaker Accuses Democrats of Intentionally Delaying Coronavirus Bill to Score Political Points” HERE)

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Alan Dershowitz Says Barack Obama ‘Conned’ Him and He Would Now Reconsider His 2012 Vote for Him

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Renowned liberal Democratic lawyer and civil liberties advocate Alan Dershowitz accused former President Barack Obama of betraying the state of Israel and personally deceiving him in a recent interview with Ben Shapiro that aired on Sunday.

Dershowitz explained to Shapiro that Obama assured him in a private meeting that he would vigorously defend Israel, but then did the opposite. . .

“I think President Obama, for whom I voted twice, and would now reconsider my second vote for him, he conned me,” he said. “He called me into the Oval Office and he said ‘I have Israel’s back’ and I didn’t realize what he meant is to put a target on it and stab them,” Dershowitz said, referring to former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power’s abstention from during a December 2016 vote condemning Israel.

“As he was leaving office, he ordered his representative to the U.N. to not veto a resolution which declared…the Western Wall, the holiest place in Judaism to be occupied territory,” he continued.

“It was outrageous,” the Harvard Law School professor added while explaining how Obama’s decision “legitimized” anti-Israel activism among the political center-left and the Democratic Party. (Read more from “Alan Dershowitz Says Barack Obama ‘Conned’ Him and He Would Now Reconsider His 2012 Vote for Him” HERE)

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Two Attendees of AIPAC’S DC Conference Test Positive for Coronavirus; Pence, Netanyahu, Hundreds Of Members Of Congress Went To Conference; FBI Employee Diagnosed With Coronavirus, Reports Say

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Pence, Netanyahu, Hundreds of Members of Congress Went to Conference Attended by 2 People Who Tested Positive for Coronavirus

By Daily Caller. Vice President Mike Pence, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and hundreds of members of Congress attended a conference last month along with at least two people who have tested positive for a novel strain of coronavirus that has killed more than 3,000 people across the globe. . .

This year’s AIPAC conference featured a who’s who of high-profile politicians, both from the U.S. and Israel. In addition to Pence and Netanyahu, the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate, Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer also attended the three-day event. . .

AIPAC organizers said Wednesday that a group of attendees had been in contact with an individual who tested positive for the virus, which is called COVID-19.

U.S. health officials have scrambled to ramp up the ability to test for possible cases of the virus. As of Friday, 299 Americans have tested positive for the virus. Fourteen of those have succumbed to the illness. Thirteen of the fatalities have occurred in the state of Washington, and all of the victims have been either elderly or had underlying health issues. (Read more from “Pence, Netanyahu, Hundreds of Members of Congress Went to Conference Attended by 2 People Who Tested Positive for Coronavirus” HERE)

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Two Attendees of AIPAC’S DC Conference Test Positive for Coronavirus

By The Blaze. The American Israeli Public Affairs Committee confirmed Friday that two people who attended its Washington, D.C., conference earlier this week have tested positive for coronavirus.

AIPAC announced on Twitter that it emailed a statement “to Policy Conference attendees, participants, speakers, administration and Hill offices” informing them that “at least two Policy Conference attendees from New York have tested positive for the Coronavirus.”

The pro-Israel group held its gathering March 1-3, hosting more than 18,000 attendees from across the country along with roughly two-thirds of the members of Congress.

USA Today reported that “attendees and speakers at the conference included Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky), Sen. Tec Cruz (R-Texas), Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), former 2020 Democratic candidate Mike Bloomberg, former candidate Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and several other lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle.”

The exposure reinforces the fears of conference organizers across the country amid efforts to stop the spread of infection, as major gatherings are increasingly being canceled or postponed amid outbreaks of the coronavirus known as COVID-19. (Read more from “Two Attendees of AIPAC’S DC Conference Test Positive for Coronavirus” HERE)

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San Francisco FBI Employee Diagnosed With Coronavirus, Reports Say

By New York Post. An FBI employee at a small satellite office in San Francisco has tested positive for coronavirus, multiple reports said Friday.

FBI officials said that the agency has notified every person known to have come in contact with the infected employee about possible exposure, KTVU reported. . .

The FBI took “preemptive measures” in February to help contain the deadly virus — ordering $40,000 of masks and hand sanitizer for use across the country in case the outbreak were to become a pandemic in the US.

(Read more from “San Francisco FBI Employee Diagnosed With Coronavirus, Reports Say” HERE)

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REPORT: Loaded Gun Discovered in the Jail Jeffrey Epstein Died In

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By Daily Caller. Investigators confirmed that a loaded handgun was found in the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in New York City, the same jail that sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in, according to a new report.

After a lockdown lasting a week, a loaded gun was discovered to be smuggled into the jail, according to AP News.

AP further described the discovery of the gun as a “massive breach of protocol” that “raised serious questions about the security practices.”

Jeffrey Epstein, a billionaire who has been convicted of sex crimes, was arrested again in 2019 and later found dead from an apparent suicide in his cell in MCC. (Read more from “REPORT: Loaded Gun Discovered in the Jail Jeffrey Epstein Died In” HERE)

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Feds Uncover Stash of Contraband in Manhattan Prison Where Jeffrey Epstein Died

By New York Post. The search of the Manhattan jail where Jeffrey Epstein killed himself last summer turned up a trove of contraband in addition to a smuggled loaded gun that forced a week-long lockdown of the facility, authorities said Friday.

Staff at the Metropolitan Correctional Center recovered homemade weapons, narcotics and cellphones while searching for the gun at the troubled jail, the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement.

“All of these items pose a significant threat to the safety and security of the facility as well as the public,” they said.

Staff found the loaded gun in a housing unit of the jail Thursday after freezing inmates’ legal and family visits for a week. The facility will remain on lockdown as staff conduct follow-up searches for additional contraband. (Read more from “Feds Uncover Stash of Contraband in Manhattan Prison Where Jeffrey Epstein Died” HERE)

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Democrats Aren’t Going to Like Trump’s New Job Growth and Unemployment Numbers

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America’s strong job growth is surprising even the experts. They predicted that there would be 175,000 new jobs in February. Instead, the economy created 273,000 jobs and the unemployment rate fell to 3.5 percent.

What’s more, December and January’s job numbers were adjusted upward by 243,000. And if you can stand it, here’s more.

CNBC:

The previous two months’ estimates were revised higher by a total of 85,000. December moved up from 147,000 to 184,000, while January went from 225,000 to 273,000. Those revisions brought the three-month average up to a robust 243,000 while the average monthly gain in 2019 was 178,000.

But before you pop the champagne corks and celebrate Trump’s re-election, there are storm clouds on the horizon. It looks like we’re in for some rough weather.

“While it’s too early to see the impact of the coronavirus on the labor market, we can say the labor market was in a good place before the virus began to spread,” said Nick Bunker, economic research director at job placement firm Indeed. “But the next few months will be a test of just how resilient this labor market is.”

(Read more from “Democrats Aren’t Going to Like Trump’s New Job Growth and Unemployment Numbers” HERE)

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