Hillary’s Campaign Convinced the Secret Service to Overpay for Chartered Flights

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Hillary Clinton’s campaign convinced the U.S. Secret Service to pay extra for agents riding with candidates in chartered flights, and that caused the government pay $4 million to several campaign committees, according to a new report.

According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an attorney from the law firm representing the Hillary for America Committee emailed officials at the Secret Service in June 2015 to argue that the government should consistently pay a higher rate for flights on candidates planes.

The Secret Service provides protection to certain presidential candidates on the taxpayer’s dime, and pays each campaign committee for seats the agents occupy on the candidate’s chartered planes while on duty.

The Secret Service has two ways of calculating how much to pay the campaign: They either pay the campaign based on the lowest priced first-class seat available for the given route, or pay a “pro rata” rate calculated by dividing the cost of the chartered flight by the number of passengers. The agency is supposed to calculate both options and pay the campaign the lower price to save taxpayer money. . .

The Secret Service agreed with the unidentified law firm’s interpretation of the law, and as a result “the Secret Service ceased to adhere to its longstanding reimbursement policy and agency officials were directed to use the pro rata calculation method for reimbursing all campaigns for agent airfares,” the GAO said. (Read more from “Hillary’s Campaign Convinced the Secret Service to Overpay for Chartered Flights” HERE)

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This Is How Much Mueller Spent on Russia Investigation

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By The Daily Caller. The office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller spent more than $4.5 million on the Russia investigation from October 2017 to March 2018, bringing the total spending to more than $7.7 million.

The entire Justice Department incurred almost another $1 million for supporting the Russia investigation in the latest report, spending a total of $5.4 million on the Russia investigation From October 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018. The Special Counsel’s Office expense report states the DOJ’s spending amount “would have incurred for the investigations irrespective of the existence of the SCO.” . . .

The Special Counsel’s Office has spent more than $7.7 million since May 2017, and the DOJ has spent more than $12 million on the Russia investigation. (Read more from “This Is How Much Mueller Spent on Russia Investigation” HERE)

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Mueller’s Investigation Cost $16.7 Million in Just Under a Year, New Documents Show

By Washington Post. Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation cost the government about $16.7 million in its first 10 1/2 months, new documents show, a not insignificant price tag that is sure to be used by President Trump and his allies to attack the probe. . .

Even before the newest documents were released, Trump had taken aim at the cost of the investigation, writing on Twitter earlier this month, “At what point does this soon to be $20,000,000 Witch Hunt, composed of 13 Angry and Heavily Conflicted Democrats and two people who have worked for Obama for 8 years, STOP!”

(Read more from “Mueller’s Investigation Cost $16.7 Million in Just Under a Year, New Documents Show” HERE)

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Imran Awan Allegedly Tried ‘to Hide His Money’ While DOJ Negotiates With Him

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Embattled former Democratic IT aide Imran Awan has as recently as weeks ago attempted to get someone to create an LLC to hide the ownership of real estate, and two people to buy a $40,000 gold bar for him, sources told The Daily Caller News Foundation. This while his lawyer has told The Daily Caller News Foundation that Imran “doesn’t have a pot to piss in.”

“He is totally unable to work and does not have a pot to piss in,” Imran attorney Chris Gowen wrote in a Feb. 27 email to TheDCNF.

Imran, who along with wife Hina Alvi worked as a server administrator for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, has been the target of an FBI investigation since the House Inspector General alleged in September 2016 that he made “unauthorized access” to House servers and systematically falsified congressional financial records. Prosecutors have charged Imran and Alvi with bank fraud related to a House retirement account and a mortgage after the FBI said Imran impersonated his wife and initiated a $300,000 wire transfer to Pakistan, claiming it was for a funeral.

Investigators say the alleged congressional fraud may extend to millions of dollars. The FBI is in possession of hundreds of “Suspicious Activity Reports” detailing unusual transfers from Imran’s bank accounts, officials said.

“This is a national security issue… He should have been locked up in jail a long time ago with all his family members,” Rep. Steve King, an Iowa Republican who serves on the Committee on the Judiciary, told TheDCNF after it briefed him on the latest findings. “Anybody that’s hiding assets by buying gold bars and trying to get people to set up LLCs, who knows what else is going on. If he’s going to those lengths there are a lot of assets here,” he said. “How much of this do [prosecutors] know? They should.” (Read more from “Imran Awan Allegedly Tried ‘to Hide His Money’ While DOJ Negotiates With Him” HERE)

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Health Workers Commit Suicide in Unprecedented Numbers

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As America focuses on one epidemic — the opioid crisis — another goes entirely ignored. American health-care workers are dying by suicide in unprecedented numbers. Earlier this month, a medical student and a resident at NYU medical school completed suicide less than a week apart.

My junior colleague took her life just 11 days before her 35th birthday. I had supervised her as she transitioned into practice from fellowship. She said that the way I said her name foretold if the conversation pointed to a weakness or a strength in her patient assessment. My last sight of her was as she drove off to her new job. Less than six months later, she made a life-ending choice.

A scan of her suicide note, asking that I be notified, was emailed to me. I did not show it to anyone. The news of her suicide was announced by an email in the department. We all went about our business, as if suicide by a young colleague is usual. And perhaps, in a way it is.

After all, physician suicide — and more broadly health-care worker suicide — is a huge issue in the U.S. In my own experience, I have lost six colleagues to suicide — five physicians and one physician assistant. That does not include the suicides that I have heard about through the whisper network at work.

My junior colleague was among an estimated 400 physicians who took their lives in 2016. Many physicians know more doctors than patients who have taken their lives. Physicians and nurses complete suicide more often than do average Americans; rates are even higher for women in both professions. Respect, fear and love for our colleagues often leads us to list the cause of death differently on death certificates. We frequently self-medicate, so suicides may instead be listed as accidental. Phrases to describe the scope like “an entire medical school class a year” or “a doctor a day” have particularly ominous meanings for physicians. (Read more from “Health Workers Commit Suicide in Unprecedented Numbers” HERE)

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Prosecutors Consider Charges for McCabe

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By The Washington Post. Investigators from the District of Columbia U.S. Attorney’s Office recently interviewed former FBI director James Comey as part of a probe into whether his deputy, Andrew McCabe, broke the law by lying to federal agents – an indication the office is seriously considering whether McCabe should be charged with a crime, a person familiar with the matter said.

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz accused McCabe in April of misleading investigators and Comey four times – three of them under oath – about authorizing a disclosure to the media. Horowitz referred the findings to the District’s U.S. Attorney’s Office to determine whether criminal charges were warranted.

Lying to federal investigators can carry a five-year prison sentence, though McCabe disputes that he intentionally misled anyone. Comey’s interview, while significant, does not indicate prosecutors have reached any conclusions, and people familiar with the process said it is not surprising given the allegations McCabe faces. A referral from the inspector general does not guarantee charges will be filed. (Read more from “Prosecutors Consider Charges for McCabe” HERE)

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Comey Interviewed by Federal Prosecutors Investigating Possible McCabe Charges: Report

By Fox News. Former FBI Director James Comey was recently questioned by the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s office as part of a probe into whether Andrew McCabe, his former deputy, committed a crime by lying to federal agents, a Thursday report claimed. . .

McCabe was fired after the Justice Department’s watchdog said he lied to investigators reviewing the bureau’s probe of Hillary Clinton’s email server. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said McCabe had not been forthcoming in regard to the handling of the FBI’s probe.

Horowitz said McCabe misled both investigators and Comey, multiple times, about a media disclosure authorization. Horowitz then passed those findings to the U.S. attorney’s office to decide if a criminal charge was necessary, although a referral doesn’t mean charges will be filed.

A five-year prison sentence could accompany a charge of lying to federal investigators. McCabe has said he didn’t intentionally mislead anyone. (Read more from “Comey Interviewed by Federal Prosecutors Investigating Possible McCabe Charges: Report” HERE)

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Country Bans Islamic Full-Face Veil in Public

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Denmark on Thursday became the latest European country to ban the Islamic full-face veil in public spaces in a move slammed by human rights campaigners as “a violation of women’s rights”.

“Anyone who wears a garment that hides the face in public will be punished with a fine,” says the law, which was passed by 75 votes to 30 in the Danish parliament. . .

Wearing a burqa, which covers a person’s entire face, or the niqab, which only shows the eyes, in public will lead to a fine of 1,000 kroner ($156, 134 euros).

The ban also targets other accessories that hide the face such as balaclavas and false beards. Repeated violations will be fined up to 10,000 kroner. . .

“Some people use (the full-face veil) to promote an ideology which, if successful, would mean many others would lose their right to freedom. It’s a matter of balance,” Martin Henriksen, spokesman for the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party, told Ritzau. (Read more from “Country Bans Islamic Full-Face Veil in Public” HERE)

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Why Millions of College Kids Are Mentally Disabled

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“As many as one in four students at some elite U.S. colleges are now classified as disabled, largely because of mental-health issues such as depression or anxiety,” starts the Wall Street Journal’s recent report on the alarmingly high level of mental disorders and psychological problems currently plaguing America’s college students.

The Journal cites a few examples: California’s Pomona College has “22 percent of students … considered disabled this year, up from 5 percent in 2014.” At three Massachusetts colleges – Hampshire, Amherst and Smith – as well as Yeshiva University in New York, “one in five students are classified as disabled. At Oberlin College in Ohio, it’s one in four. At Marlboro College in Vermont, it’s one in three.” Think about that – one in every three students legally classified as “disabled.” (All it takes is a note from one’s doctor.)

Then there’s New York’s Vassar, Oregon’s Reed, Massachusetts’ Mount Holyoke and the University of Vermont, all with 16 percent of students psychologically disabled. At Haverford it’s 15 percent, Stanford 14 percent, Brown 12 percent, Yale 11 percent and Columbia 8 percent. . .

While a society like today’s America, which is increasingly divided, angry and morally rudderless, naturally gives rise to a multitude of factors that can and do contribute to psychological problems in college students, what is all but ignored in most reporting is the toxic nature of the college experience itself. . .

Do you suppose all this might promote “mental-health issues”? For countless young people, their college experience annihilates their innocence and sows within them tremendous inner conflict, anxiety, guilt and self-loathing. This conflict, in turn, is often breezily diagnosed as “depression” and masked with powerful and poorly understood psychiatric drugs with fearsome side effects. (Read more from “Why Millions of College Kids Are Mentally Disabled” HERE)

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Google Puts the Blame on Wikipedia After ‘Nazism’ Appears on California GOP Search

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Google reportedly identified one of the ideologies of the California Republican Party as “Nazism” on its highly popular search platform.

The piece of inaccurate information, which is hyperlinked to presumably take web browsers to more information about the hateful, fascist persuasion, is found in the “knowledge panel,” a sidebar widget that presents further, more immediate information.

The feature has had problems before, specifically when an embedded fact-check feature tried to erroneously pin specious claims on articles written by The Daily Caller.

Google eventually suspended the fact check project after The Daily Caller News Foundation investigated and pressed further.

The most recent misattribution was first reported on by Vice News. Other ideologies listed besides Nazism, according to a screenshot obtained by Vice’s Alex Thompson, include “Conservatism, Market Liberalism, Fiscal conservatism, and Green conservatism.”

Many people, especially those on the right, will suspect that it might have been done by a rogue Google employee or inadvertently through a flawed algorithm.

Google, however, told TheDCNF that it’s because sometimes “people vandalize public information sources, like Wikipedia, which can impact the information that appears in search.”

Wikipedia is for the most part open-source, meaning that almost anyone with only limited verification can add, amend and delete information.

“We have systems in place that catch vandalism before it impacts search results, but occasionally errors get through, and that’s what happened here,” a Google spokeswoman said.

Nevertheless, it comes at an inopportune time for the subject as California primaries are less than a week way. It’s not clear how long the tag was up, but absentee ballots have been cast for some time ahead of the elections.

The listing caught the attention, particularly the ire, of many who are Republican or on that end of the political spectrum.

U.S. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, for example, took notice and equated it to apparent bias.

The listing has since been removed, but how much damage it may have done is not clear.

Google says it was only up for a short period of time.

“This would have been fixed systematically once we processed the removal from Wikipedia,” the company representative concluded. “But when we noticed the vandalism we worked quickly to accelerate this process to remove the erroneous information.” (For more from the author of “Google Puts the Blame on Wikipedia After ‘Nazism’ Appears on California GOP Search” please click HERE)

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Diamond and Silk Attack ABC, Call out Establishment Media’s Double Standard

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As many in the liberal media use the racist joke posted on Twitter by Roseanne Barr as “proof” of how it reflects the racist attitude of supporters of President Donald Trump, black conservative vloggers Diamond & Silk — whose real names are Lynette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson — are fighting back against those stereotypes.

The duo is also calling out ABC and others for what they perceive as a double standard in how Barr was treated.

In appearances on multiple Fox News programs Wednesday and Thursday, the sisters called Barr’s tweet — which suggested former Obama White House adviser Valerie Jarrett is the offspring of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Planet of the Apes — a “mistake” that reflected “bad judgment” on the part of the comedian.

But they said a bad attempt at humor should not result in someone being branded as a racist.

“Roseanne, she is not a racist. She made bad judgment. She apologized for it,” Diamond pointed out.

“One tweet don’t make you a racist,” added Silk.

Barr herself tweeted her appreciation for the women’s comments.

Diamond and Silk were also upset by a tweet from MSNBC host Chris Hayes, who claimed Barr’s controversial comment was representative of the attitude of many Trump supporters.

“That’s not the representation of the Trump base,” Diamond said. “We’re loving, caring people. We’re not racists. We love God, we love this country, so how dare he say that.”

“We’re not racists,” Silk added. “Our president is not racist, he is a realist and the only color he sees is green, and he wants everybody to have some.”
Diamond and Silk also claim there’s a double standard in effect, noting that former MSNBC host and current ESPN commentator Keith Olbermann often uses profanity in his tweets criticizing Trump and his supporters.

“We had to block Keith Olbermann on Twitter because he’s so nasty,” Diamond said.

They also noted how ABC tolerates personalities like Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg and Jimmy Kimmel making insulting remarks about Trump and his supporters on a daily basis.

“Look at all the other shows on ABC that make these derogatory racist remarks toward the president of the United States, toward his supporters,” Diamond said. “They’re still on air every single day.”

The sisters also criticized the black community for calling out whites for racist remarks, but tolerating racism from their own side.

“If this is a teachable moment, open it up. If we’re going to talk about racism, let’s talk about it on both sides,” Diamond said. “We’re called monkeys, we’re called coons and all kind of derogatory names every day. Everybody want to be mad at Roseanne who happens to be a white woman, and you want to call her a racist. What about the racism on the other side? We have black brothers and sisters calling other black brothers and sisters all kinds of derogatory names.

“If we’re going to have a conversation (about racism), let’s tell the truth … and not just be one sided.” (For more from the author of “Diamond and Silk Attack ABC, Call out Establishment Media’s Double Standard” HERE)

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Outrage Follows After Samantha Bee Launches Profane On-Air Attack on Ivanka Trump

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Comedian Samantha Bee is receiving significant backlash for a profane and derogatory attack aimed at President Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, during a monologue on her TBS show “Full Frontal.”

Bee began the segment by criticizing current U.S. immigration policy that separates undocumented children from their parents.

“We’re going to talk about racism, and I just popped an Ambien so everyone buck up!” Bee told the audience.

She then turned her attention to a photo Ivanka had posted to Instagram of her son, Theodore.

Various media figures had already characterized the photo as insensitive and heartless in light of Trump’s immigration policy.

Bee took the criticism a step further, resorting to vulgar and personal attacks against the first daughter.

“You know Ivanka, that’s a beautiful photo of you and your child, but let me just say, one mother to another, do something about your dad’s immigration practices you feckless c***,” she said. “He listens to you, put on something tight and low-cut and tell your father to f***ing stop it.”

Various media figures agreed that Bee went too far.

“To me, it was so jarring,” said NBC’s Megyn Kelly. “It was so jarring. To me, hate is hate, and I think she should be condemned for it, too. It’s not to word police. It’s just hate is hate is hate.”

Kelly also argued that Bee deserves to be condemned for her comment, just as comedian Roseanne Barr has been for her racially charged comment about a former Obama administration official.

CNN’s Poppy Harlow called Bee’s comments “over the line,” and “incredibly offensive.”

“It’s never OK to say that about someone,” Harlow said.

People on social media reacted as well, calling out the entertainment media for its double standard in light of Barr’s firing from ABC this week.

“Roseanne deserved to get fired for her comment,” wrote one social media user. “Samantha Bee called Ivanka a ‘c-‘ on air and Keith Olbermann routinely calls the President a ‘motherf***er’ Do you think either will get fired? Maybe see why so many Americans think there’s a double standard for liberals.”

“If this statement had been addressed to a child of a former president, Samantha Bee would be out of a job,” wrote another.

Bee’s segment attacking Ivanka has now been removed from the show’s official YouTube account.

TBS has not yet responded to the controversy or on whether any disciplinary action will be taken against Bee for her comment. (For more from the author of “Outrage Follows After Samantha Bee Launches Profane On-Air Attack on Ivanka Trump” please click HERE)

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