Cameron Ortis, a director general with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s intelligence unit (RCMP), faces three charges of violating intelligence laws and leaking sensitive information.  While the destination for his leaked intel is not revealed, his professional business profile shows he speaks “fluent mandarin Chinese“. So, connect the dots…

Obviously Justin from Canada wants to keep a tight lid on the spying compromise; and unfortunately, with the Canadian election a little more than a month away, the compliant state-run media are more than willing to try and downplay the issue.

OTTAWA (Reuters) – A top Canadian police intelligence officer has been charged with leaking secret information, authorities said on Friday, in what could be a major security breach.
Cameron Ortis, a director general with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s intelligence unit, faces three charges under a little-used 2012 security of information law.

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The recession-hoping pundits took more blows to their remaining credibility today when both the Commerce Department and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) deliver excellent economic results from August that continue to exceed MSM expectations.
The Commerce Dept. announced that retail sales climbed by 0.4 percent in August, twice as high as the 0.2 percent analysts had predicted. The result highlights retail sales strength of more than 4 percent year-over-year.   These excellent results come on the heels of blowout data in July, when households boosted purchases of cars and clothing.

The better-than-expected number stemmed largely from a 1.8 percent jump in spending vehicles. Online sales, meanwhile, also continued to climb, rising 1.6 percent. That’s similar to July, when Amazon held its two-day, blowout Prime Day sale. (link)

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In a quiet admission of food dependency, China purchased 600,000 tonnes of soybeans yesterday (link), and simultaneously announced that U.S. pork and soybean imports would be exempt from further tariff increases.
The surface message Beijing is selling, surrounds their magnanimous panda narrative of reaching out to diminish trade friction.  However, below the surface everyone knows China cannot feed itself,and if food prices keep rising they could likely have growing unrest.

Beijing’s decision to not enhance tariffs of pork and soybeans is very self serving; particularly because China owns Smithfield foods, the largest producer of U.S. pork.  In essence China has lessened tariffs against their own company.

(SCMP) China has announced that it will exclude imports of US soybeans, pork and other farm goods from additional trade war tariffs, opening the door for significant purchases of agricultural products.
The official Xinhua News Agency reported on Friday that China’s National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce made the exemption in response to the US’ decision of postpone an increase in the tariff rate on $250 billion of Chinese goods from October 1 to October 15.

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The DOJ Office of Inspector General Michael Horowitz has notified congress that his investigation is complete.  In a letter to congressional committee members with oversight authority, IG Horowitz states the draft report on his FISA abuse investigation is currently undergoing an internal classification review:
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When the reports of a possible indictment for Andrew McCabe surfaced, we noted it would be interesting to see how the Lawfare alliance responds. Today we can see that response.
Andrew McCabe’s defense attorney, Michael Bromwich (also the attorney for ‘beach friend’ Christine Blasey-Ford in the Kavanaugh narrative), leaks his communication with U.S. Attorney for DC, Jessie Liu, to the New York Times.

Leaks to the NYT and WaPo are how the Lawfare alliance push their narrative.  These are the same DOJ/FBI officials who leaked to the same media when constructing the Russian Conspiracy narrative around the Trump campaign.  [Same exact people]

(NYT) […] In a letter sent late on Thursday, defense lawyers asked whether a grand jury had considered charges against Mr. McCabe, who is being investigated over whether he lied to internal investigators about interactions with news media. The letter came shortly after the Justice Department told Mr. McCabe’s lawyers that it had rejected their pitch to the deputy attorney general to drop the case.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Stephanie Grisham Twitter @StephGrisham45

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

As you listen to Jeffrey Toobin defend former FBI Director Andrew McCabe, play a little mental juxtaposition game and replace McCabe with General Mike Flynn.  Then contemplate just how hypocritical, sanctimonious, biased and politically obtuse this CNN crew of narrative engineers really are.  WATCH:

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Here’s a juxtaposed transcript using Toobins exact words:

…”This is an extremely unusual prosecution.  Michael Flynn had the right to speak to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, that is beyond dispute. As incoming National Security Advisor he had the fight to speak to ambassadors. He also had an impeccable record as one of the most honored and successful DNI heads of his generation.”

…”It’s complicated.  It is really difficult to understand even what the lie is here; the alleged lie.  The alleged lie is while Flynn had the right to speak to Ambassador Kislyak, and he spoke to Ambassador Kislyak… well, months later, describe what was in the conversation that you had every right to have; at a time when Flynn’s being interviewed about a different subject.  Being prosecuted for lying in these very esoteric circumstances, where it’s about this conversation – then that conversation, well, it’s very rare. You know”…

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The ABC debate with Democrat candidates is tonight from 8:00pm to 11:00pm EDT on ABC and Univision.
The moderators are ABC​ News’​ George Stephanopoulos, David Muir, Linsey Davis and Univision’s Jorge Ramos.
[Live-stream Link Here]
The debate is taking place at Texas Southern University, and the ten participating candidates are: ♦Former VP Joe Biden; ♦Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts; ♦Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey; ♦South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg; ♦former Housing Secretary Julian Castro; ♦Senator Kamala Harris of California; ♦Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota; ♦former Reresentative Robert “Beto” O’Rourke of Texas; ♦Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont; and ♦entrepreneur Andrew Yang.
For those watching the debate, consider this an open discussion thread.
 

Chopper pressers are the best pressers.  Departing the White House for a flight to Baltimore, Maryland, attending a republican conference dinner, the President pauses to hold an impromptu press conference with the media pool on a variety of topics.
[UPDATE – Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] THE PRESIDENT: Thank you everybody. So, the stock market is up again, and we’re very close to a new high. It would be over 100 times, I believe. You’ll check it. But many, many times, we set the record. So we’re very honored by that. We’re having a tremendous couple of weeks. A lot of good things are happening.
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