 |
| "President Donald Trump, accompanied by First-Lady Melania Trump, traveled to Broward Health North Hospital in Pompano Beach, Florida, to visit some of the shooting victims from Marjory Stoneman High School and thank the doctors, medical staff and first responders. President Trump delivered brief remarks to the traveling press pool while colluding with Dr. Igor Nichiporenko and discussing the hospital’s efforts." "For this is the original message we heard: We should love each other." 1 John 3:11 Message Bible |
Friday, February 16, 2018
Of Course They Did
Tuesday, February 13, 2018
What About Bill?
Wut?
Coincidence...
...or a striking occurrence of two or more events at one time apparently by mere chance?
Decide for yourself. Like Bill.
Coincidence...
...or a striking occurrence of two or more events at one time apparently by mere chance?
Decide for yourself. Like Bill.
Monday, February 12, 2018
And the Gold Medal for Kissing Up to Dictators Goes To...the American Media! Again!
Another World-Class Disgraceful Performance by the Reliables
Some excerpts from PJM's American Media Can't Stop Gushing About the North Korean 'Charm Offensive' at the Olympics:
"ABC: North Korea's 200-plus cheerleaders steal spotlight at 2018 Winter Olympics with matching outfits, synchronized chants.
CNN: "Kim Jong Un's sister is stealing the show at the Winter Olympics."
NYT: "Without a word, only flashing smiles, Kim Jong-un's sister outflanked Vice President Mike Pence in diplomacy."
 |
| Like Grandfather, Like Grandkids: Here, Il-Sung and Stalin discuss Sung's plan to dominate the Olympic Limbo competition by making North Koreans three inches shorter than South Koreans due to poor diet. This is celebrated every year on National Tree Bark Day. |
"ABC: North Korea's 200-plus cheerleaders steal spotlight at 2018 Winter Olympics with matching outfits, synchronized chants.
CNN: "Kim Jong Un's sister is stealing the show at the Winter Olympics."
NYT: "Without a word, only flashing smiles, Kim Jong-un's sister outflanked Vice President Mike Pence in diplomacy."
Joe Concha: Just a reminder that Kim Jong-un's sister literally heads the Department of Propaganda and Agitation. The Soviets called it Agitprop. The NY Times & other outlets are providing North Korea, with this fawning coverage, more than it could have ever dreamed of. We've lost our minds.
Razor: Last week: Trump wants a military parade like a dictator!
This week: The admirable precision of North Korea's cheerleaders will warm your heart!".......
This week: The admirable precision of North Korea's cheerleaders will warm your heart!".......
Iowahawk said what I was thinking--or what I wish I was thinking. He does that a lot:
David Burge @iowahawkblog
I don't expect the #FakeNews Media to bash the North Koreans during the Olympics. But do they have to participate in organized cheerleading for the regime as if they were North Korean athletes?
Reuters: "Head held high, Kim's sister returns to North Korea
Iowahawk: "Whose head was it?"
Reuters continued: "A prim, young woman with a high forehead and hair half swept back quietly gazes at the throngs of people pushing for a glimpse of her, a faint smile on her lips..." Oh, get a room, people.
The News Molesters bash Trump as a proto-dictator every day--but when confronted with the actual thing, they folded quicker than a Two-Dollar Tijuana hooker on roofies.
Without the hooker's quiet dignity.
Or two dollars.
WAPO's Gene WeingartenVerified account @geneweingarten
Sean DavisVerified account @seanmdav
You would never know that Kim Yo-jong is Director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Workers' Party of Korea. If we had a real press corps, they could at least mention how her Mob Family-With-a-Flag eats well while the country's workers are half-starved--the lucky ones, anyway.
"Dirt: It's What's For Dinner!"
In Soviet Russia, when someone said "I read it in the papers.", it meant it was a lie.
Now we know how they felt.
David Burge @iowahawkblog
Hitler's It Girl Eva Braun Wows Swells at 1936 Olympics
I don't expect the #FakeNews Media to bash the North Koreans during the Olympics. But do they have to participate in organized cheerleading for the regime as if they were North Korean athletes?
Reuters: "Head held high, Kim's sister returns to North Korea
Iowahawk: "Whose head was it?"
Reuters continued: "A prim, young woman with a high forehead and hair half swept back quietly gazes at the throngs of people pushing for a glimpse of her, a faint smile on her lips..." Oh, get a room, people.
The News Molesters bash Trump as a proto-dictator every day--but when confronted with the actual thing, they folded quicker than a Two-Dollar Tijuana hooker on roofies.
Without the hooker's quiet dignity.
Or two dollars.
WAPO's Gene WeingartenVerified account @geneweingarten
Sean DavisVerified account @seanmdav
"Meanwhile, a columnist with the Democracy Dies In Darkness Post is demanding apologies on behalf of the monsters who run North Korea's slave camps."
You would never know that Kim Yo-jong is Director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Workers' Party of Korea. If we had a real press corps, they could at least mention how her Mob Family-With-a-Flag eats well while the country's workers are half-starved--the lucky ones, anyway.
"Dirt: It's What's For Dinner!"
In Soviet Russia, when someone said "I read it in the papers.", it meant it was a lie.
Now we know how they felt.
Sunday, February 11, 2018
GOPe Seizes Budget Defeat From the Jaws of Victory: They've Gotten Used to Losing--and They Like It!
What the Hell Happened to Paul Ryan?
Ryan used to be a budget hawk, according to the legend. I guess he was budget hawk just like John McCain was "leading the fight to Repeal and Replace ObamaCare!". John Boehner could have done better than this!
Washington Times:
"Rep. Jim Jordan says the swamp struck back with the passage of a massive budget deal that increases government spending by $300 billion.
“I’m saying the swamp won and the American taxpayer lost,” Mr. Jordan, co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus, said on “Fox News Sunday.”
The Ohio Republican said fiscal conservatives were poised to reduce government spending this time around, but Republican leadership caved despite having majorities in each house of Congress.
He said Washington did what it always does: “spend more on everything,” “grow government” and “give in to the Democrats,” instead of fighting for “what the people elected us to do.’”".......
It's not just the money--it's the freedom. When government grows, freedom shrinks.
Rick Moran:
It's way past time to primary these Big Government RINOs and replace Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell with real conservative leaders. They had their chance to present the president with a reasonably conservative budget--and they blew it. Big Time.
"Public servants say, always with the best of intentions, "What greater service we could render if only we had a little more money and a little more power." But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector." --Ronald Reagan, October 27, 1964
 |
| "I always feel sorry for a political party when it's their turn to pretend to be deficit hawks."--IowaHawk |
Washington Times:
"Rep. Jim Jordan says the swamp struck back with the passage of a massive budget deal that increases government spending by $300 billion.
“I’m saying the swamp won and the American taxpayer lost,” Mr. Jordan, co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus, said on “Fox News Sunday.”
The Ohio Republican said fiscal conservatives were poised to reduce government spending this time around, but Republican leadership caved despite having majorities in each house of Congress.
He said Washington did what it always does: “spend more on everything,” “grow government” and “give in to the Democrats,” instead of fighting for “what the people elected us to do.’”".......
It's not just the money--it's the freedom. When government grows, freedom shrinks.
Rick Moran:
"Conservatives in Congress and in the hinterlands are bitterly complaining about the massive insult to fiscal sanity the budget deal passed on Thursday morning represents.
Even worse, some Republicans are offended by the pushback. Their target is Senator Rand Paul who, almost alone, tried to stand in the way of the budget deal in the Senate.
GOP political analyst Susan Del Percio said on MSNBC that it was the day "the tea party died."
What remains of the tea party is, to my mind, the best part. The desire of ordinary people to govern themselves, to take personal responsibility for their own lives, and to try to do something about the denigration and increasing irrelevance of the Constitution.
If that spirit ever dies, America dies.".......
It's way past time to primary these Big Government RINOs and replace Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell with real conservative leaders. They had their chance to present the president with a reasonably conservative budget--and they blew it. Big Time.
 |
| “You can’t be for big government, big taxes, and big bureaucracy and still be for the little guy.” |
Due Process Crimes
Even People That CNN Dislike Have Rights
Andrew Klavan nails it: "The resignation of White House staff secretary Rob Porter is a big scandal because Democrats and their news media are pumping it up to distract the public from the truly enormous scandal of the Obama administration's apparent illegal spying on the Trump campaign...If the charges are true, it is certainly a scandal, but a minor one. Unlike the Obama administration's widespread corruption, it does not make the people more or less free. ...
I found myself flicking back and forth between conservative Fox News and leftist CNN for an hour or so. Fox covered the budget negotiations. CNN covered Rob Porter. Fox covered the Obama spying scandal. CNN covered Rob Porter. Fox covered Rob Porter. CNN covered Rob Porter. Fox covered the war in Syria. CNN covered Rob Porter. And on and on. On CNN, it was Rob Porter all night long.".......
The bilge rats know that the Good Ship 'Barry's Legacy' is sinking and they're flailing. It's all they've got.
They're bashing the president for (among a thousand other sins) asking whatever happened to Due Process.
They're treating Due Process as if it were merely some shady legal trick used by Mafia bosses instead of a foundational pillar of our legal system. And law aside, we've seen the abandonment of "due process" in science to achieve political results and the abdication of standards in journalism to achieve political outcomes. Similarly with One-Man Treaties and One-Man legislation.
Not to mention the outrageously corrupt and criminal abandonment of all proper government protocols and processes to achieve the wiretapping and framing of Donald Trump.
No wonder he supports Due Process. You would too.
 |
| Undo the Undue! |
I found myself flicking back and forth between conservative Fox News and leftist CNN for an hour or so. Fox covered the budget negotiations. CNN covered Rob Porter. Fox covered the Obama spying scandal. CNN covered Rob Porter. Fox covered Rob Porter. CNN covered Rob Porter. Fox covered the war in Syria. CNN covered Rob Porter. And on and on. On CNN, it was Rob Porter all night long.".......
The bilge rats know that the Good Ship 'Barry's Legacy' is sinking and they're flailing. It's all they've got.
They're bashing the president for (among a thousand other sins) asking whatever happened to Due Process.
 |
| "'Due Process'? I got a Process 'Doo!" |
Not to mention the outrageously corrupt and criminal abandonment of all proper government protocols and processes to achieve the wiretapping and framing of Donald Trump.
No wonder he supports Due Process. You would too.
 |
| Give the man his Due, too! |
Climate Change: A Primer
(From the Archives)
"One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. This has almost nothing to do with the environmental policy anymore, with problems such as deforestation or the ozone hole. We redistribute de facto the world's wealth by climate policy."--United Nations climate official Ottmar Edenhofer, co-chair of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change working group on Mitigation of Climate Change, 2008-2015
Some of you who grew up with this propaganda in your Saturday morning cartoons may have never heard this said, so consider this your trigger warning.
When I was a kid(tm), we had a thing called "weather". Sometimes it was good, sometimes it was bad. Sometimes we had droughts, even dust bowls. Sometimes we had rainfall and bumper crops and sometimes hurricanes. But we didn't worship the weather.
Back then, the Left wanted things they couldn't have. We wouldn't let them.
They wanted higher taxes. They wanted to transfer America's wealth and sovereignty to unaccountable international bodies like the UN. They wanted to control industrial policy, yet still have political deniability when their policies created impoverishment and slow growth. They wanted to propagandize schoolchildren. They wanted to arrogate unto themselves the automatic moral high ground and the right not to have their motives questioned while questioning everyone else's. They wanted to silence dissent.
But they couldn't have these things--a free people refused to consent to them.
But, miracle of miracles, "science" came along and "discovered" Climate Change, and Poof! all their goals were realized! It's the damnedest coincidence in history!
What are the odds that science just happens to "discover" the magic keys that fortuitously unlock the Left's Political Wish List? It's just as unlikely as your Bar-B-Cue grill affecting sea levels a century from now. And even if their protocols were implemented, they admit that temperatures wouldn't change by more than a fraction. Of a fraction. Of a fraction. Of a fraction.
It's about political control, not scientific results. It's not "man-made" Climate Change--it's Manufactured.
They yell "The Science is Settled! The Science is Settled!"
No, but the science funding is pretty well settled. And it goes to the Agree-ers. Turns out, you can create a fair amount of "consensus" by funding and recognizing the Received Wisdom Pre-Approved by the $tate. By the way, even the statistic that "98% of all scientists agree" is itself phony statistical science.
I'm not saying all those scientists are bought, but they are all human. And funded by other humans with a Vested Interest in the Correct Result. The Left dismisses scientists who are funded by Big Oil. Why are scientists funded by Big Government somehow exempt from the same pressures? Upton Sinclair said "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." That's true for all.
Everyone wants a fat paycheck, to be recognized, to be told their work is important, even vital to the survival of the planet. Computer models of events a century away are so nebulous as to be fiction-ish--but all the incentives are as real as Buffy's orthodontist bill.
Let's say I suddenly "discovered" a weather phenomenon that required limited government, lower taxes and free-market capitalism--would anyone believe it? Yet liberals "discovered" one that requires all their favorite policies.
Not too long ago, Al Gore stood on a stage with a dozen state attorney generals. Like Loretta Lynch, they were threatening to jail Climate Heretics. Because...Science!
That's not science--that's Al Capone with a chemistry set.
"One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. This has almost nothing to do with the environmental policy anymore, with problems such as deforestation or the ozone hole. We redistribute de facto the world's wealth by climate policy."--United Nations climate official Ottmar Edenhofer, co-chair of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change working group on Mitigation of Climate Change, 2008-2015
Some of you who grew up with this propaganda in your Saturday morning cartoons may have never heard this said, so consider this your trigger warning.
When I was a kid(tm), we had a thing called "weather". Sometimes it was good, sometimes it was bad. Sometimes we had droughts, even dust bowls. Sometimes we had rainfall and bumper crops and sometimes hurricanes. But we didn't worship the weather.
Back then, the Left wanted things they couldn't have. We wouldn't let them.
They wanted higher taxes. They wanted to transfer America's wealth and sovereignty to unaccountable international bodies like the UN. They wanted to control industrial policy, yet still have political deniability when their policies created impoverishment and slow growth. They wanted to propagandize schoolchildren. They wanted to arrogate unto themselves the automatic moral high ground and the right not to have their motives questioned while questioning everyone else's. They wanted to silence dissent.
But they couldn't have these things--a free people refused to consent to them.
But, miracle of miracles, "science" came along and "discovered" Climate Change, and Poof! all their goals were realized! It's the damnedest coincidence in history!
What are the odds that science just happens to "discover" the magic keys that fortuitously unlock the Left's Political Wish List? It's just as unlikely as your Bar-B-Cue grill affecting sea levels a century from now. And even if their protocols were implemented, they admit that temperatures wouldn't change by more than a fraction. Of a fraction. Of a fraction. Of a fraction.
It's about political control, not scientific results. It's not "man-made" Climate Change--it's Manufactured.
They yell "The Science is Settled! The Science is Settled!"
No, but the science funding is pretty well settled. And it goes to the Agree-ers. Turns out, you can create a fair amount of "consensus" by funding and recognizing the Received Wisdom Pre-Approved by the $tate. By the way, even the statistic that "98% of all scientists agree" is itself phony statistical science.
I'm not saying all those scientists are bought, but they are all human. And funded by other humans with a Vested Interest in the Correct Result. The Left dismisses scientists who are funded by Big Oil. Why are scientists funded by Big Government somehow exempt from the same pressures? Upton Sinclair said "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." That's true for all.
Everyone wants a fat paycheck, to be recognized, to be told their work is important, even vital to the survival of the planet. Computer models of events a century away are so nebulous as to be fiction-ish--but all the incentives are as real as Buffy's orthodontist bill.
Let's say I suddenly "discovered" a weather phenomenon that required limited government, lower taxes and free-market capitalism--would anyone believe it? Yet liberals "discovered" one that requires all their favorite policies.
Not too long ago, Al Gore stood on a stage with a dozen state attorney generals. Like Loretta Lynch, they were threatening to jail Climate Heretics. Because...Science!
That's not science--that's Al Capone with a chemistry set.
 |
| Climate Fascism is still Fascism. |
Thursday, February 8, 2018
President Trump at the National Prayer Breakfast
Remarks at 66th Annual Event:
"...America is a nation of believers, and together we are strengthened by the power of prayer. This morning, our hearts are full of gratitude as we come together for the 66th annual National Prayer Breakfast.
But our hearts are also saddened by the absence of the co-founder of this wonderful breakfast who passed away last year, Doug Coe, who everybody loved. (Applause.) For 60 years, Doug devoted his time and passion to this Prayer Breakfast and to many other wonderful causes. Today, we are blessed to be joined by Doug’s wife Jan, and two of their sons, David and Tim. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you very much. Great man.
I want to thank you for carrying on Doug’s legacy also, and bringing our nation together in prayer. You are indeed carrying on his great legacy.
Each year, this event reminds us that faith is central to American life and to liberty. Our founders invoked our Creator four times in the Declaration of Independence. Our currency declares, “In God We Trust.” (Applause.) And we place our hands on our hearts as we recite the Pledge of Allegiance and proclaim we are “One Nation Under God.” (Applause.)
Our rights are not given to us by man; our rights come from our Creator. (Applause.) No matter what, no Earthly force can take those rights away. (Applause.) That is why the words “Praise be to God” are etched atop the Washington Monument, and those same words are etched into the hearts of our people.
So today, we praise God for how truly blessed we are to be American. (Applause.) Across our land, we see the splendor of God’s creation. Throughout our history, we see the story of God’s providence. And in every city and town, we see the Lord’s grace all around us, through a million acts of kindness, courage and generosity. We love God.
We see the Lord’s grace in the service members who risk their lives for our freedom. We see it in the teachers who work tirelessly for their students, and the police who sacrifice for our communities — and sacrifice they do. (Applause.)
And we see the Lord’s grace in the moms and dads who work two and three jobs to give their children the chance for a better and much more prosperous and happier life.
As the Bible tells us, for we are God’s handiwork, created in Jesus Christ to do good works. America’s heroes rise to this calling. In their selfless deeds, they reveal the beauty and goodness of the human soul.
When catastrophic hurricanes struck, first responders and everyday citizens dove into rushing waters to save stranded families from danger. And they saved them by the thousands. Neighbors opened their homes to those in need of food, clothes, shelter. Firefighters braved blinding smoke and flames to rescue children from devastating wildfires.
During the horrific shootings, strangers shielded strangers, and police officers ran into a hail of bullets to save the lives of their fellow Americans, right in Las Vegas. A terrible day, a terrible night. But such bravery.
Families have adopted babies orphaned by the opioid epidemic and given them loving homes. Communities and churches have reached out to those struggling with addiction, and shown them the path to a clean life, a good job, and a renewed sense of purpose.
And soldiers, sailors, Coast Guardsmen, airmen, and Marines have spent long months away from home defending our great American flag. (Applause.)
All we have to do is open our eyes and look around us, and we can see God’s hand. In the courage of our fellow citizens, we see the power of God’s love at work in our souls, and the power of God’s will to answer all of our prayers.
When Americans are able to live by their convictions, to speak openly of their faith, and to teach their children what is right, our families thrive, our communities flourish, and our nation can achieve anything at all. (Applause.)
Together, as Americans, we are a tireless force for justice and for peace. We have witnessed this truth over the past year.
For years, ISIS had brutally tortured and murdered Christians, Jews, religious minorities, and countless Muslims.
Today, the coalition to defeat ISIS has liberated almost 100 percent of the territory just recently held by these killers in Iraq and all throughout Syria. (Applause.)
Much work will always remain, but we will never rest until that job is completely done. And we are really doing it like never before. (Applause.)
We know that millions of people in Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, and other countries suffer under repressive and brutal regimes. America stands with all people suffering oppression and religious persecution.
Last week, during the State of the Union, the world was inspired by the story of a North Korean defector, Mr. Ji Seong-ho, who is now back in South Korea.
Before his escape, when Seong-ho was being tortured by North Korean officials, there was one thing that kept him from losing hope: Over and over again, he recited the Lord’s Prayer. He prayed for peace, and he prayed for freedom. And now, as you know, Seong-ho is free and a symbol of hope to millions of people all around the world. (Applause.)
Here with us today is another symbol of hope, a very brave 9-year-old girl named Sophia Marie Campa Peters. Sophia suffers from a rare disease that has caused her to have many strokes. At one point, the doctors told Sophia that she would not be able to walk.
Sophia replied, “If you’re only going to talk about what I can’t do, then I don’t want to hear it — (laughter) — just let me try to walk.” (Applause.)
She tried, and she succeeded. And one of her doctors even told her mom — and they’re right here in the front row where they should be — “This little girl has God on her side.” (Applause.) Thank you, Sophia. Thank you, mom. Great mom.
I said, “Do you love your mom?” She said, “I have a great mom. I love my mom.” (Laughter.) Right?
Just two weeks ago, Sophia needed to have a very high-risk surgery. She decided to ask the whole world to pray for her, and she hoped to reach 10,000 people.
On January 24th, as Sophia went into surgery, she far surpassed her goal. Millions and millions of people lifted Sophia up in their prayers.
Today, we thank God that Sophia is with us, and she’s recovering, and she’s walking very well. (Applause.)
And I have to say this, Sophia: You may only be 9 years old, but you are already a hero to all of us in this room, and all over the world. Thank you, Sophia. (Applause).
Heroes like Sophia come from all across our country and from every different background. But they all share one thing in common: Through their love, their courage, their sacrifice, we glimpse the grace of almighty God.
So today, inspired by our fellow citizens, let us resolve to find the best within ourselves. Let us pray for that extra measure of strength and that extra measure of devotion. And let us seek to build a more just and peaceful world, where every child can grow up without violence, worship without fear, and reach their God-given potential.
As long as we are true to America’s founding and the example that all of these great founders have set, we can all be heroes to everybody, and they can be heroes to us.
As long as we open our eyes to God’s grace and open our hearts to God’s love, then America will forever be the land of the free, the home of the brave, and a light unto all nations. (Applause.)
Thank you for this incredible event and to our wonderful hosts. And thank you to all of our heroes for serving, protecting, and inspiring America each and every day.
God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you very much. Thank you." (Applause.)
"...America is a nation of believers, and together we are strengthened by the power of prayer. This morning, our hearts are full of gratitude as we come together for the 66th annual National Prayer Breakfast.
But our hearts are also saddened by the absence of the co-founder of this wonderful breakfast who passed away last year, Doug Coe, who everybody loved. (Applause.) For 60 years, Doug devoted his time and passion to this Prayer Breakfast and to many other wonderful causes. Today, we are blessed to be joined by Doug’s wife Jan, and two of their sons, David and Tim. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you very much. Great man.
I want to thank you for carrying on Doug’s legacy also, and bringing our nation together in prayer. You are indeed carrying on his great legacy.
Each year, this event reminds us that faith is central to American life and to liberty. Our founders invoked our Creator four times in the Declaration of Independence. Our currency declares, “In God We Trust.” (Applause.) And we place our hands on our hearts as we recite the Pledge of Allegiance and proclaim we are “One Nation Under God.” (Applause.)
Our rights are not given to us by man; our rights come from our Creator. (Applause.) No matter what, no Earthly force can take those rights away. (Applause.) That is why the words “Praise be to God” are etched atop the Washington Monument, and those same words are etched into the hearts of our people.
So today, we praise God for how truly blessed we are to be American. (Applause.) Across our land, we see the splendor of God’s creation. Throughout our history, we see the story of God’s providence. And in every city and town, we see the Lord’s grace all around us, through a million acts of kindness, courage and generosity. We love God.
We see the Lord’s grace in the service members who risk their lives for our freedom. We see it in the teachers who work tirelessly for their students, and the police who sacrifice for our communities — and sacrifice they do. (Applause.)
And we see the Lord’s grace in the moms and dads who work two and three jobs to give their children the chance for a better and much more prosperous and happier life.
As the Bible tells us, for we are God’s handiwork, created in Jesus Christ to do good works. America’s heroes rise to this calling. In their selfless deeds, they reveal the beauty and goodness of the human soul.
When catastrophic hurricanes struck, first responders and everyday citizens dove into rushing waters to save stranded families from danger. And they saved them by the thousands. Neighbors opened their homes to those in need of food, clothes, shelter. Firefighters braved blinding smoke and flames to rescue children from devastating wildfires.
During the horrific shootings, strangers shielded strangers, and police officers ran into a hail of bullets to save the lives of their fellow Americans, right in Las Vegas. A terrible day, a terrible night. But such bravery.
Families have adopted babies orphaned by the opioid epidemic and given them loving homes. Communities and churches have reached out to those struggling with addiction, and shown them the path to a clean life, a good job, and a renewed sense of purpose.
And soldiers, sailors, Coast Guardsmen, airmen, and Marines have spent long months away from home defending our great American flag. (Applause.)
All we have to do is open our eyes and look around us, and we can see God’s hand. In the courage of our fellow citizens, we see the power of God’s love at work in our souls, and the power of God’s will to answer all of our prayers.
When Americans are able to live by their convictions, to speak openly of their faith, and to teach their children what is right, our families thrive, our communities flourish, and our nation can achieve anything at all. (Applause.)
Together, as Americans, we are a tireless force for justice and for peace. We have witnessed this truth over the past year.
For years, ISIS had brutally tortured and murdered Christians, Jews, religious minorities, and countless Muslims.
Today, the coalition to defeat ISIS has liberated almost 100 percent of the territory just recently held by these killers in Iraq and all throughout Syria. (Applause.)
Much work will always remain, but we will never rest until that job is completely done. And we are really doing it like never before. (Applause.)
We know that millions of people in Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, and other countries suffer under repressive and brutal regimes. America stands with all people suffering oppression and religious persecution.
Last week, during the State of the Union, the world was inspired by the story of a North Korean defector, Mr. Ji Seong-ho, who is now back in South Korea.
Before his escape, when Seong-ho was being tortured by North Korean officials, there was one thing that kept him from losing hope: Over and over again, he recited the Lord’s Prayer. He prayed for peace, and he prayed for freedom. And now, as you know, Seong-ho is free and a symbol of hope to millions of people all around the world. (Applause.)
Here with us today is another symbol of hope, a very brave 9-year-old girl named Sophia Marie Campa Peters. Sophia suffers from a rare disease that has caused her to have many strokes. At one point, the doctors told Sophia that she would not be able to walk.
Sophia replied, “If you’re only going to talk about what I can’t do, then I don’t want to hear it — (laughter) — just let me try to walk.” (Applause.)
She tried, and she succeeded. And one of her doctors even told her mom — and they’re right here in the front row where they should be — “This little girl has God on her side.” (Applause.) Thank you, Sophia. Thank you, mom. Great mom.
I said, “Do you love your mom?” She said, “I have a great mom. I love my mom.” (Laughter.) Right?
Just two weeks ago, Sophia needed to have a very high-risk surgery. She decided to ask the whole world to pray for her, and she hoped to reach 10,000 people.
On January 24th, as Sophia went into surgery, she far surpassed her goal. Millions and millions of people lifted Sophia up in their prayers.
Today, we thank God that Sophia is with us, and she’s recovering, and she’s walking very well. (Applause.)
And I have to say this, Sophia: You may only be 9 years old, but you are already a hero to all of us in this room, and all over the world. Thank you, Sophia. (Applause).
Heroes like Sophia come from all across our country and from every different background. But they all share one thing in common: Through their love, their courage, their sacrifice, we glimpse the grace of almighty God.
So today, inspired by our fellow citizens, let us resolve to find the best within ourselves. Let us pray for that extra measure of strength and that extra measure of devotion. And let us seek to build a more just and peaceful world, where every child can grow up without violence, worship without fear, and reach their God-given potential.
As long as we are true to America’s founding and the example that all of these great founders have set, we can all be heroes to everybody, and they can be heroes to us.
As long as we open our eyes to God’s grace and open our hearts to God’s love, then America will forever be the land of the free, the home of the brave, and a light unto all nations. (Applause.)
Thank you for this incredible event and to our wonderful hosts. And thank you to all of our heroes for serving, protecting, and inspiring America each and every day.
God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you very much. Thank you." (Applause.)
"POTUS wants to know everything we're doing."
And I Want to Know Everything POTUS Was Doing--Perfect!
Thomas Lifson:
"Tick, tick, tick… we’re getting closer and closer to the “What did the president know and when did he know it?” moment in the biggest political scandal in American history. What looks like a sitting president authorizing the use of the vast spy apparatus of the federal government on the opposing party candidate for president would, if proven, be far bigger than Watergate – a mere burglary intended to spy on the opposition. ...
Up until the present moment, Barack Obama has been missing in all the discussions of surveillance misbehavior. And most curiously, Obama has been almost invisible...My optimistic guess is that he realizes his peril and is dummying up.".......
Things are moving fast now.
The last British spy who tried to pick our leader for us was Maj. John Andre. Despite being a Christian gentleman, General Washington had him hanged for his efforts. In fairness to Mr. Steele, the Dossier was largely written by Sid Blumenthal with a ghost-writing assist from the FSB.
Chairman Goodlatte has asked the head of the FISA Court Rosemary Collyer to release the phony wiretap applications. She has a history of integrity so we will see.
Speaking of integrity, sundance seems to believe Christopher Wray is one of the good guys and not a Dirty Cop like all the others. It is true that McCabe and others have been fired (including DOJ's Laufman just yesterday). I'll defer to sundance, as he has been doing the Pulitzer-worthy reporting that most of the News Molesters refuse to do. As usual, they are doing everything possible to ignore and hide the Biggest Political Scandal in American History.
It ain't going down like that, Sugar-Tits. It will not be hidden anymore.
 |
| Like catnip to Communists: They couldn't resist abusing the wiretap authority. |
"Tick, tick, tick… we’re getting closer and closer to the “What did the president know and when did he know it?” moment in the biggest political scandal in American history. What looks like a sitting president authorizing the use of the vast spy apparatus of the federal government on the opposing party candidate for president would, if proven, be far bigger than Watergate – a mere burglary intended to spy on the opposition. ...
Up until the present moment, Barack Obama has been missing in all the discussions of surveillance misbehavior. And most curiously, Obama has been almost invisible...My optimistic guess is that he realizes his peril and is dummying up.".......
The last British spy who tried to pick our leader for us was Maj. John Andre. Despite being a Christian gentleman, General Washington had him hanged for his efforts. In fairness to Mr. Steele, the Dossier was largely written by Sid Blumenthal with a ghost-writing assist from the FSB.
Chairman Goodlatte has asked the head of the FISA Court Rosemary Collyer to release the phony wiretap applications. She has a history of integrity so we will see.
Speaking of integrity, sundance seems to believe Christopher Wray is one of the good guys and not a Dirty Cop like all the others. It is true that McCabe and others have been fired (including DOJ's Laufman just yesterday). I'll defer to sundance, as he has been doing the Pulitzer-worthy reporting that most of the News Molesters refuse to do. As usual, they are doing everything possible to ignore and hide the Biggest Political Scandal in American History.
It ain't going down like that, Sugar-Tits. It will not be hidden anymore.
Monday, February 5, 2018
Carter Page Was an FBI Employee, Not a Russian Spy--UPDATE: Was Page Duped? UPDATED: No.
They Only Called Him a Spy to Justify Wiretapping the Trumps
The FBI planted a mole in the Trump Campaign. They sent him over to volunteer and then called him a spy to get a wiretap warrant.
Classic Police State stuff. Read about it here:
UPDATE: It is possible that the FBI didn't tell Page he was working for the FBI's Commitee to Re-Enthrone the Empress- Desk (C.R.E.E.P.)
Hell, they could have told Page he was on a secret patriotic mission to protect Trump.
It didn't matter what he was doing at the Campaign, only that he was there, so the FBI could tell the FISA Court that he was a Russian agent, thereby justifying wiretaps.
Deep Stated and -UPDATED:
"In 2013 Carter Page was working as an under-cover employee (UCE) of the FBI, helping them to build a case against “Evgeny Buryakov”. In March 2016 Carter Page remained their informant pre-trial. ...In March of 2016 Buryakov pleaded GUILTY."
Hillary lost because Americans wanted Trump's pro-American vision, not the anti-American vision of Democrats or the America-indifferent vision of the Uni-Party.
However, the Clintons sealed their fate on the Tarmac. It was arrogant to think they could get away with it. But they knew better than anyone not to talk on the phone.
We thought at the time it was about fixing Hillary's case. But I now think that was a given. I think the Tarmac Meeting was more about wiretapping and framing Trump.
When they got caught, Lynch had to "recuse" herself, knowing the case was already fixed. Comey had to step up and take the heat so as not to look completely in the bag. He was completely in the bag of course--but he didn't want to appear like it.
All of this bit Hillary in the ass.
It wasn't supposed to go down like this. Lynch was supposed to go to the Supreme Court. Comey to AG. McCabe to Director, etc.
But their arrogance did them in.
When Hillary Clinton was framing Billy Dale for the crime of Inconveniencing the Empress, she had her bar bouncer Craig Livingstone go fetch his FBI file...and hundreds of other FBI files on Republicans as well. She kept them for years until she got caught.
FBI Dir. Louie Freeh immediately called it "egregious violations of privacy" on the part of the FBI and especially the White House. Has Director Christopher Wray publically condemened any of the FBI's #I'mWithHer actions? If he has, I haven't heard it.
Two things to remember:
1. Hillary's exoneration, the Clinton Dossier Smear Campaign, the criminal wiretapping, the unmaskings, the Mueller Probe and Impeachment: They Are All One Seamless Thing.
2. It was ALL done out of the Oval Office.
The FBI planted a mole in the Trump Campaign. They sent him over to volunteer and then called him a spy to get a wiretap warrant.
Classic Police State stuff. Read about it here:
UPDATE: It is possible that the FBI didn't tell Page he was working for the FBI's Commitee to Re-Enthrone the Empress- Desk (C.R.E.E.P.)
Hell, they could have told Page he was on a secret patriotic mission to protect Trump.
It didn't matter what he was doing at the Campaign, only that he was there, so the FBI could tell the FISA Court that he was a Russian agent, thereby justifying wiretaps.
Deep Stated and -UPDATED:
"In 2013 Carter Page was working as an under-cover employee (UCE) of the FBI, helping them to build a case against “Evgeny Buryakov”. In March 2016 Carter Page remained their informant pre-trial. ...In March of 2016 Buryakov pleaded GUILTY."
Carter Page was a member of the Clinton administration Transition Team.
Carter Page previously worked with the Clinton Administration transition team in 1992-1993 while serving as a Research Fellow on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) on Capitol Hill. During his Fellowship, HASC Chairman Les Aspin was selected by President Clinton as the Secretary of Defense in December 1992. From May 1993 – December 1994, Carter went on to serve as the Arms Control Action Officer for Counterproliferation Policy in the Nuclear Affairs and International Negotiations Branch of the Navy Staff in the Pentagon.
However, the Clintons sealed their fate on the Tarmac. It was arrogant to think they could get away with it. But they knew better than anyone not to talk on the phone.
We thought at the time it was about fixing Hillary's case. But I now think that was a given. I think the Tarmac Meeting was more about wiretapping and framing Trump.
When they got caught, Lynch had to "recuse" herself, knowing the case was already fixed. Comey had to step up and take the heat so as not to look completely in the bag. He was completely in the bag of course--but he didn't want to appear like it.
All of this bit Hillary in the ass.
It wasn't supposed to go down like this. Lynch was supposed to go to the Supreme Court. Comey to AG. McCabe to Director, etc.
But their arrogance did them in.
When Hillary Clinton was framing Billy Dale for the crime of Inconveniencing the Empress, she had her bar bouncer Craig Livingstone go fetch his FBI file...and hundreds of other FBI files on Republicans as well. She kept them for years until she got caught.
FBI Dir. Louie Freeh immediately called it "egregious violations of privacy" on the part of the FBI and especially the White House. Has Director Christopher Wray publically condemened any of the FBI's #I'mWithHer actions? If he has, I haven't heard it.
Two things to remember:
1. Hillary's exoneration, the Clinton Dossier Smear Campaign, the criminal wiretapping, the unmaskings, the Mueller Probe and Impeachment: They Are All One Seamless Thing.
2. It was ALL done out of the Oval Office.
Sunday, February 4, 2018
What's Up, Doc?
A: Ordered Liberty in a Free Republic; That's What.
(From the archives, Dec. 2016)
Dr. Thomas Sowell: "Even the best things come to an end. After enjoying a quarter of a century of writing this column for Creators Syndicate, I have decided to stop. Age 86 is well past the usual retirement age, so the question is not why I am quitting, but why I kept at it so long.
It was very fulfilling to be able to share my thoughts on the events unfolding around us, and to receive feedback from readers across the country – even if it was impossible to answer them.
Thanks for a lifetime of service, sir; you made it better.
Let the graceful man speak:
"We have always had to worry about the ignorance of the uneducated. Today we have to worry about the ignorance of people with college degrees."
“Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good.”
“Freedom has cost too much blood and agony to be relinquished at the cheap price of rhetoric.”
"Hillary Clinton's idea that we have to see the world from our adversaries' point of view — and even "empathize" with it — is not new. Back in 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain said, "I have realized vividly how Herr Hitler feels." Ronald Reagan, however, made sure our adversaries understood how we felt. Reagan's approach turned out a lot better than Chamberlain's."
“The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best.”
“Whenever someone refers to me as someone "who happens to be black," I wonder if they realize that both my parents are black. If I had turned out to be Scandinavian or Chinese, people would have wondered what was going on.”
“If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism.”
"The history of the 20th century is full of examples of countries that set out to redistribute wealth and ended up redistributing poverty."
“When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination.”
“One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them.”
“Ronald Reagan had a vision of America. Barack Obama has a vision of Barack Obama.”
“It was Thomas Edison who brought us electricity, not the Sierra Club. It was the Wright brothers who got us off the ground, not the Federal Aviation Administration. It was Henry Ford who ended the isolation of millions of Americans by making the automobile affordable, not Ralph Nader. Those who have helped the poor the most have not been those who have gone around loudly expressing 'compassion' for the poor, but those who found ways to make industry more productive and distribution more efficient, so that the poor of today can afford things that the affluent of yesterday could only dream about.”
“What is called “planning” in political rhetoric is the government’s suppression of other people’s plans by superimposing on them a collective plan, created by third parties, armed with the power of government and exempted from paying the costs that these collective plans impose on others.”
“As a young Marxist in college during the 1950s heyday of the anti-Communist crusade led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, I had more freedom to express my views in class, without fear of retaliation, than conservative students have on many campuses today.”
..."[W]hen loan approval rates are not cited, but loan denial rates are, that creates a larger statistical disparity, since most loans are approved. Even if 98 percent of blacks had their mortgage loan applications approved, if 99 percent of whites were approved than by quoting denial rates alone it could be said that blacks were rejected twice as often as whites.” [Which is how you lie with statistics--Ed.]
Wouldn't it be wonderful to live in a world where there were no prices? There is such a world. It is the world of political rhetoric. No wonder so many people are attracted to that world. It would be a great place to live. Politicians have more ways of escaping from prices than Houdini had ways of escaping from locks. When savvy pols want to hand out goodies, but don't want to take responsibility for raising taxes to pay for them, they can tax people who can't vote— namely the next generation— by getting the money by selling government bonds that future taxpayers will have to redeem. The most politically painless way to hand out goodies, without taking responsibility for their costs, is to pass a law saying that somebody else must provide those goodies at their expense, while the politicians take credit for generosity and compassion.
“Guns are completely inappropriate for the kind of sheep-like people the anointed envision or the orderly, prepackaged world in which they are to live. When you are in mortal danger, you are supposed to dial 911, so that the police can arrive on the scene some time later, identify your body, and file reports in triplicate.”
"By the end of the 20th century, “liberals” had again discredited themselves, to the point where they went back to calling themselves “progressives” to escape their past, much as people do when they declare bankruptcy."
"What ‘multiculturalism’ boils down to is that you can praise any culture in the world except Western culture – and you cannot blame any culture in the world except Western culture."
"People who pride themselves on their 'complexity" and deride others for being 'simplistic' should realize that the truth is often not very complicated. What gets complex is evading the truth."
"Capitalism is not an ‘ism.’ It is closer to being the opposite of an ‘ism,’ because it is simply the freedom of ordinary people to make whatever economic transactions they can mutually agree to."
"In a sense, proponents of "social justice" are unduly modest. What they are seeking to correct are not merely the deficiencies of society, but of the cosmos. What they call social justice encompasses far more than any given society is causally responsible for. Crusaders for social justice seek to correct not merely the sins of man but the oversights of God or the accidents of history. What they are really seeking is a universe tailor-made to their vision of equality. They are seeking cosmic justice."
"Socially counterproductive policies are just one of the many costs of the quest for cosmic justice. The rule of law, on which a free society depends, is inherently incompatible with cosmic justice. Laws exist in all kinds of societies, from the freest to the most totalitarian. But the rule of law-- a government of laws and not of men, as it used to be called-- is rare and vulnerable. You cannot redress the myriad inequalities which pervade human life by applying the same rules to all or by applying any rules other than the arbitrary dispensations of those in power. The final chapter of The Quest for Cosmic Justice is titled "The Quiet Repeal of the American Revolution"-- because that is what is happening piecemeal by zealots devoted to their own particular applications of cosmic justice."
"Fight back. That spirit is the best birthday present for America."
(From the archives, Dec. 2016)
Dr. Thomas Sowell: "Even the best things come to an end. After enjoying a quarter of a century of writing this column for Creators Syndicate, I have decided to stop. Age 86 is well past the usual retirement age, so the question is not why I am quitting, but why I kept at it so long.
It was very fulfilling to be able to share my thoughts on the events unfolding around us, and to receive feedback from readers across the country – even if it was impossible to answer them.
Being old-fashioned, I liked to know what the facts were before writing. That required not only a lot of research, it also required keeping up with what was being said in the media.
During a stay in Yosemite National Park last May, taking photos with a couple of my buddies, there were four consecutive days without seeing a newspaper or a television news program – and it felt wonderful. ...This made me decide to spend less time following politics and more time on my photography, adding more pictures to my website (www.tsowell.com).".......Thanks for a lifetime of service, sir; you made it better.
Let the graceful man speak:
"We have always had to worry about the ignorance of the uneducated. Today we have to worry about the ignorance of people with college degrees."
“Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good.”
“Freedom has cost too much blood and agony to be relinquished at the cheap price of rhetoric.”
"If you want to understand the fatal dangers facing America today, read "The Gathering Storm" by Winston Churchill. The book is not about America, the Middle East or nuclear missiles. But it shows Europe's attitudes and delusions — aimed at peace in the years before the Second World War — which instead ended up bringing on that most terrible war in all of human history. ... Reading about the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, and the widespread retrogressions of Western civilization that followed, was an experience that was sobering, if not crushing. Ancient history in general lets us know how long human beings have been the way they are, and dampens giddy zeal for the latest panaceas, despite how politically correct those panaceas may be."
"Hillary Clinton's idea that we have to see the world from our adversaries' point of view — and even "empathize" with it — is not new. Back in 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain said, "I have realized vividly how Herr Hitler feels." Ronald Reagan, however, made sure our adversaries understood how we felt. Reagan's approach turned out a lot better than Chamberlain's."
“The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best.”
“Whenever someone refers to me as someone "who happens to be black," I wonder if they realize that both my parents are black. If I had turned out to be Scandinavian or Chinese, people would have wondered what was going on.”
“If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism.”
"The history of the 20th century is full of examples of countries that set out to redistribute wealth and ended up redistributing poverty."
“When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination.”
“One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them.”
“Ronald Reagan had a vision of America. Barack Obama has a vision of Barack Obama.”
“It was Thomas Edison who brought us electricity, not the Sierra Club. It was the Wright brothers who got us off the ground, not the Federal Aviation Administration. It was Henry Ford who ended the isolation of millions of Americans by making the automobile affordable, not Ralph Nader. Those who have helped the poor the most have not been those who have gone around loudly expressing 'compassion' for the poor, but those who found ways to make industry more productive and distribution more efficient, so that the poor of today can afford things that the affluent of yesterday could only dream about.”
“What is called “planning” in political rhetoric is the government’s suppression of other people’s plans by superimposing on them a collective plan, created by third parties, armed with the power of government and exempted from paying the costs that these collective plans impose on others.”
“As a young Marxist in college during the 1950s heyday of the anti-Communist crusade led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, I had more freedom to express my views in class, without fear of retaliation, than conservative students have on many campuses today.”
..."[W]hen loan approval rates are not cited, but loan denial rates are, that creates a larger statistical disparity, since most loans are approved. Even if 98 percent of blacks had their mortgage loan applications approved, if 99 percent of whites were approved than by quoting denial rates alone it could be said that blacks were rejected twice as often as whites.” [Which is how you lie with statistics--Ed.]
Wouldn't it be wonderful to live in a world where there were no prices? There is such a world. It is the world of political rhetoric. No wonder so many people are attracted to that world. It would be a great place to live. Politicians have more ways of escaping from prices than Houdini had ways of escaping from locks. When savvy pols want to hand out goodies, but don't want to take responsibility for raising taxes to pay for them, they can tax people who can't vote— namely the next generation— by getting the money by selling government bonds that future taxpayers will have to redeem. The most politically painless way to hand out goodies, without taking responsibility for their costs, is to pass a law saying that somebody else must provide those goodies at their expense, while the politicians take credit for generosity and compassion.
“Guns are completely inappropriate for the kind of sheep-like people the anointed envision or the orderly, prepackaged world in which they are to live. When you are in mortal danger, you are supposed to dial 911, so that the police can arrive on the scene some time later, identify your body, and file reports in triplicate.”
"By the end of the 20th century, “liberals” had again discredited themselves, to the point where they went back to calling themselves “progressives” to escape their past, much as people do when they declare bankruptcy."
"What ‘multiculturalism’ boils down to is that you can praise any culture in the world except Western culture – and you cannot blame any culture in the world except Western culture."
"People who pride themselves on their 'complexity" and deride others for being 'simplistic' should realize that the truth is often not very complicated. What gets complex is evading the truth."
"Capitalism is not an ‘ism.’ It is closer to being the opposite of an ‘ism,’ because it is simply the freedom of ordinary people to make whatever economic transactions they can mutually agree to."
"In a sense, proponents of "social justice" are unduly modest. What they are seeking to correct are not merely the deficiencies of society, but of the cosmos. What they call social justice encompasses far more than any given society is causally responsible for. Crusaders for social justice seek to correct not merely the sins of man but the oversights of God or the accidents of history. What they are really seeking is a universe tailor-made to their vision of equality. They are seeking cosmic justice."
"Socially counterproductive policies are just one of the many costs of the quest for cosmic justice. The rule of law, on which a free society depends, is inherently incompatible with cosmic justice. Laws exist in all kinds of societies, from the freest to the most totalitarian. But the rule of law-- a government of laws and not of men, as it used to be called-- is rare and vulnerable. You cannot redress the myriad inequalities which pervade human life by applying the same rules to all or by applying any rules other than the arbitrary dispensations of those in power. The final chapter of The Quest for Cosmic Justice is titled "The Quiet Repeal of the American Revolution"-- because that is what is happening piecemeal by zealots devoted to their own particular applications of cosmic justice."
"Fight back. That spirit is the best birthday present for America."
 |
"If parents have a choice of where to send their children, many of those parents are not likely to send them to failing public schools, when there are alternative schools available that equip those youngsters with an education that can open the way to a far better future for them. Already there are tens of thousands of children on waiting lists to get into charter schools, just in New York alone. Those waiting lists are a clear threat to teachers' unions, whose leaders think schools exist to provide guaranteed jobs for their members. Mrs. DeVos has shown for more than 20 years that she thinks schools exist to educate children. American education is at a crossroads."
|
Friday, February 2, 2018
Memo Day: Because You Said I Couldn't
I Will
Sources and Methods?
The source is the Clinton Campaign. The method is lying.
"To: HPSCI Majority Members
From: HPSCI Majority Staff
Subject: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Abuses at the Department
of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Purpose
This memorandum provides Members an update on significant facts relating to the Committee’s ongoing investigation into the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and their use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) during the 2016 presidential election cycle. Our findings, which are detailed below, 1) raise concerns with the legitimacy and legality of certain DOJ and FBI interactions with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), and 2) represent a troubling breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from abuses related to the FISA process.
Investigation Update
On October 21, 2016, DOJ and FBI sought and received a FISA probable cause order (not under Title VII) authorizing electronic surveillance on Carter Page from the FISC. Page is a u.s. citizen who served as a volunteer advisor to the Trump presidential campaign. Consistent with requirements under FISA, the application had to be first certified by the Director or Deputy Director of the FBI. It then required the approval of the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General (DAG), or the Senate-confirmed Assistant Attorney General for-the National Security Division.
The FBI and DOJ obtained one initial FISA warrant targeting Carter Page and three FISA renewals from the FISC. As required by statute (50 U.S.C. §J805(d)(1)), a FISA order on an American citizen must be renewed by the FISC every 90 days and each renewal requires a separate finding of probable cause. Then-Director James Corney signed three FISA applications in question on behalf of the FBI, and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe signed one. Then-DAG Sally Yates, then-Acting DAG Dana Boente, and DAG Rod Rosenstein each signed one or more FISA applications on behalf of DOJ.
Due to the sensitive nature of foreign intelligence activity, FISA submissions (including renewals) before the FISC are classified. As such, the public’s confidence in the integrity of the FISA process depends on the court’s ability to hold the government to the highest standard particularly as it relates to surveillance of American citizens. However, the FISC’s rigor in protecting the rights of Americans, which is reinforced by 90-day renewals of surveillance orders, is necessarily dependent on the government’s production to the court of all material and relevant facts. This should include information potentially favorable to the target of the FISA application that is known by the government.
In the case of Carter Page, the government had at least four independent opportunities before the FISC to accurately provide an accounting of the relevant facts. However, our findings indicate that, as described below, material and relevant information was omitted.
1) The “dossier’~ compiled by Christopher Steele (Steele dossier) on behalf of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Hillary Clinton campaign formed’ an essential part of the Carter Page FISA application. Steele was a longtime FBI source who was paid over $160,000 by the DNC and Clinton campaign, via the law firm Perkins Coie and research from Fusion GPS, to obtain derogatory information on Donald Trump’s ties to Russia.
The Page FISA application incorrectly assesses that Steele did not directly provide information to Yahoo News. Steele has admitted in British court filings that he met with Yahoo News-and several other. outlets-in September 2016 at the direction of Fusion GPS.
Perkins Coie was aware of Steele’s initial media contacts because they hosted at least one meeting in Washington D.C. in 2016 with Steele and Fusion GPS where this matter was discussed.
Shortly after the election, the FBI began interviewing Ohr, documenting his communications with Steele. For example, in September 2016, Steele admitted to Ohr his feelings against then-candidate Trump when Steele said he “was desperate that Donald
Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president.” This clear evidence of Steele’s bias was recorded by Ohr at the time and subsequently in official FBI files-but not reflected in any of the Page FISA applications.
While the FISA application relied on Steele’s past record of credible reporting on other unrelated matters, it ignored or concealed his anti-Trump financial and ideological motivations. Furthermore, Deputy Director McCabe testified before the Committee in
Decemper 2017 that no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISC without the Steele dossier information.
5) The Page FISA application also mentions information regarding fellow Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos, but there is no evidence of any cooperation or conspiracy between Page and Papadopoulos. The Papadopoulos information triggered the opening of an FBI counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016 by FBI agent Pete
Strzok.
Strzok was reassigned by the Special Counsel’s Office to FBI Human Resources for improper text messages with his mistress, FBI Attorney Lisa Page (no known relation to Carter Page), where they both demonstrated a clear bias against Trump and in favor of Clinton, whom Strzok had also investigated. The Strzok/Lisa Page texts also reflect
extensive discussions about the investigation, orchestrating leaks to the media, and include a meeting with Deputy Director McCabe to discuss an “insurance” policy against President Trump’s election.".......
Don Surber: "This, sir, is no Watergate; it is 10 times worse.
The Obama Scandal is the abuse of power by a president and his operatives to undermine the election -- and then to sabotage the regime change.
The release of the memo confirms the former.
We have known about the latter for a long time.
The Democratic Party, mainstream media, and thousands of political operatives in our federal government have spent the past year-plus sabotaging the peaceful transfer of power.
They seek to undermine our republic by replacing our elective process with a permanent bureaucracy of elitists controlled by Democrats, regardless of whom we elect. This is the government Patrick Henry feared, and James Madison tried to prevent.".......
This has gone way beyond Trump and Obama.
It is now about whether we're a democracy or a Blob-ocracy.
Moar Input-UPDATE:
Simon: "Their latest meme is "cherry picking." The memo was cherry-picked and therefore to be ignored. That's like saying a murderer who has a clean driving record and is a good cook is not a murderer. Whatever else happened, the FBI clearly used a slanderous fictional document to get a FISA ruling to surveil Carter Page without telling the court the document was a pack of lies paid for by the Clinton campaign and written by a creepy spy with old-line Soviet connections. And they did it multiple times.
The dossier was ludicrous on its face, yet the supposedly great legal minds of the FISA court accepted it as what appears to be the most important evidence for the case.
What we need, obviously, is the old word transparency. The public needs to see the full details of what went into the FISA decisions — and we don't need to hear any of that fake palaver about national security. Everybody's security depends on the FISA court working in a one-hundred percent unbiased manner. Otherwise we're living a nightmare.".......
Neumayr: "The media’s response to the release of the Nunes memo surpasses the level of Pravda covering a Soviet show trial. No sooner had the memo appeared than journalists immediately began throwing sand into their audience’s eyes. The story, according to the media, is not that Obama’s Justice Department/FBI snookered FISA court judges and used Hillary’s purchased Steele dossier to spy on Trumpworld. No, the scandal is that the evil Republicans exposed this outrage, and that Trump, the ultimate target of this espionage, has the gall to defend himself. How dare a defendant in our kangaroo trial defend himself with the truth — that’s the upshot of all the media’s bleating. All you can do is laugh at the intensity of the gibbering propaganda and misdirection, which is nothing more than the rage of a ruling class nabbed in an audacious act of political espionage. Katy Tur of MSNBC summed up the bewilderment of the ruling class perfectly: “None of this is normal.” In other words, we expose Republicans; they don’t expose us.
“None of this is normal” is what monopolists say when it dawns on them that they are losing their monopoly.
Much of the post-release coverage consisted of trotting out this or that “professional” from the deep state to call the Nunes memo “trash” without challenge. The kangaroo court was back in session, endlessly appealing to its own authority to bless the political espionage.
You can almost hear the Jeff Zuckers talking into their puppet-propagandists’ ears: Shoot the messenger, change the subject, talk about the “motivations” behind the memo, the “consequences” of the memo, what “Putin” might think of the memo, any “resignations” that might follow the memo’s release, but whatever you do don’t talk about the information in the memo.
The media’s favorite tactic is to treat Trump’s self-defense, even if it is rooted in the truth, as an ongoing scandal. It is appalling to the kangaroo court that he would “discredit” the probe into his campaign by pointing to discreditable behavior. That is a no-no. That is “politics.” That is “selfish,” placing his own “personal interests” above the “interests of the country.” The media’s view is that victims of political rape, provided they are Republicans, should sit back and enjoy it. Anything less is “not normal.”".......
Sources and Methods?
The source is the Clinton Campaign. The method is lying.
"To: HPSCI Majority Members
From: HPSCI Majority Staff
Subject: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Abuses at the Department
of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Purpose
This memorandum provides Members an update on significant facts relating to the Committee’s ongoing investigation into the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and their use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) during the 2016 presidential election cycle. Our findings, which are detailed below, 1) raise concerns with the legitimacy and legality of certain DOJ and FBI interactions with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), and 2) represent a troubling breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from abuses related to the FISA process.
Investigation Update
On October 21, 2016, DOJ and FBI sought and received a FISA probable cause order (not under Title VII) authorizing electronic surveillance on Carter Page from the FISC. Page is a u.s. citizen who served as a volunteer advisor to the Trump presidential campaign. Consistent with requirements under FISA, the application had to be first certified by the Director or Deputy Director of the FBI. It then required the approval of the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General (DAG), or the Senate-confirmed Assistant Attorney General for-the National Security Division.
The FBI and DOJ obtained one initial FISA warrant targeting Carter Page and three FISA renewals from the FISC. As required by statute (50 U.S.C. §J805(d)(1)), a FISA order on an American citizen must be renewed by the FISC every 90 days and each renewal requires a separate finding of probable cause. Then-Director James Corney signed three FISA applications in question on behalf of the FBI, and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe signed one. Then-DAG Sally Yates, then-Acting DAG Dana Boente, and DAG Rod Rosenstein each signed one or more FISA applications on behalf of DOJ.
Due to the sensitive nature of foreign intelligence activity, FISA submissions (including renewals) before the FISC are classified. As such, the public’s confidence in the integrity of the FISA process depends on the court’s ability to hold the government to the highest standard particularly as it relates to surveillance of American citizens. However, the FISC’s rigor in protecting the rights of Americans, which is reinforced by 90-day renewals of surveillance orders, is necessarily dependent on the government’s production to the court of all material and relevant facts. This should include information potentially favorable to the target of the FISA application that is known by the government.
In the case of Carter Page, the government had at least four independent opportunities before the FISC to accurately provide an accounting of the relevant facts. However, our findings indicate that, as described below, material and relevant information was omitted.
1) The “dossier’~ compiled by Christopher Steele (Steele dossier) on behalf of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Hillary Clinton campaign formed’ an essential part of the Carter Page FISA application. Steele was a longtime FBI source who was paid over $160,000 by the DNC and Clinton campaign, via the law firm Perkins Coie and research from Fusion GPS, to obtain derogatory information on Donald Trump’s ties to Russia.
a) Neither the initial application in October 2016, nor any of the renewals, disclose or reference the role of the DNC, Clinton campaign, or. any party/campaign in funding Steele’s efforts, even though the political origins of the Steele dossier were then known to senior DOJ and FBI officials.
b) The initial FISA application notes Steele was working for a named u.s. person, but does not name Fusion GPS and principal Glenn Simpson, who was paid by a U.S. law from (Perkins Coie) representing the DNC (even though it was known by DOJ at the time that political actor~ were involved with the Steele dossier). The application does not mention Steele was ultimately working on behalf of-and paid by-the DNC and
Clinton campaign, or that the FBI had separately authorized payment to Steele for the same information.
2) The Carter Page FISA application also cited extensively a September 23,2016, Yahoo News article by. Michael Isikoff, which focuses on Page’s July 2016 trip to Moscow. , This article does not corroborate the Steele dossier because it is derived from information leaked by Steele himself to Yahoo News.Clinton campaign, or that the FBI had separately authorized payment to Steele for the same information.
The Page FISA application incorrectly assesses that Steele did not directly provide information to Yahoo News. Steele has admitted in British court filings that he met with Yahoo News-and several other. outlets-in September 2016 at the direction of Fusion GPS.
Perkins Coie was aware of Steele’s initial media contacts because they hosted at least one meeting in Washington D.C. in 2016 with Steele and Fusion GPS where this matter was discussed.
a) Steele was suspended and then terminated as an FBI source for what the FBI defines as the most serious of violations – an unauthorized disclosure to the media of his relationship with the FBI in an October 30, 2016, Mother Jones article by David Com. Steele should have been terminated for his previous undisclosed contacts with Yahoo and other outlets in September-before the Page application was submitted to the FISC in October-but Steele improperly concealed from and lied to the FBI about those contacts.
b) Steele’s numerous encounters with the media violated the cardinal rule of source handling-maintaining confidentiality-and demonstrated that Steele had become a less than reliable source for the FBI.
3) Before and after Steele was terminated as a source, he maintained contact with DOJ via then-Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, a senior DOl official who worked closely with Deputy Attorneys General Yates and later Rosenstein.Shortly after the election, the FBI began interviewing Ohr, documenting his communications with Steele. For example, in September 2016, Steele admitted to Ohr his feelings against then-candidate Trump when Steele said he “was desperate that Donald
Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president.” This clear evidence of Steele’s bias was recorded by Ohr at the time and subsequently in official FBI files-but not reflected in any of the Page FISA applications.
a) During this same time period, Ohr’s wife was employed by Fusion GPS to assist in the cultivation of opposition research on Trump. Ohr later provided the FBI with all of his wife’s opposition research, paid for by the DNC and Clinton campaign via Fusion GPS. The Ohrs’ relationship with Steele and Fusion GPS was inexplicably concealed from the FISC.
4) According to the head of the FBI’s counterintelligence division, Assistant Director Bill Priestap, corroboration of the Steele dossier was in its “infancy” at the time of the initial Page FISA application. After Steele was terminated, a source validation report conducted by an independent unit within FBI assessed Steele’s reporting as only minimally corroborated. Yet, in early January 2017, Director Corney briefed President-elect Trump on a summary of the Steele dossier, even though it was -according to his June 2017 testimony- “salacious and unverified.”While the FISA application relied on Steele’s past record of credible reporting on other unrelated matters, it ignored or concealed his anti-Trump financial and ideological motivations. Furthermore, Deputy Director McCabe testified before the Committee in
Decemper 2017 that no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISC without the Steele dossier information.
5) The Page FISA application also mentions information regarding fellow Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos, but there is no evidence of any cooperation or conspiracy between Page and Papadopoulos. The Papadopoulos information triggered the opening of an FBI counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016 by FBI agent Pete
Strzok.
Strzok was reassigned by the Special Counsel’s Office to FBI Human Resources for improper text messages with his mistress, FBI Attorney Lisa Page (no known relation to Carter Page), where they both demonstrated a clear bias against Trump and in favor of Clinton, whom Strzok had also investigated. The Strzok/Lisa Page texts also reflect
extensive discussions about the investigation, orchestrating leaks to the media, and include a meeting with Deputy Director McCabe to discuss an “insurance” policy against President Trump’s election.".......
Don Surber: "This, sir, is no Watergate; it is 10 times worse.
The Obama Scandal is the abuse of power by a president and his operatives to undermine the election -- and then to sabotage the regime change.
The release of the memo confirms the former.
We have known about the latter for a long time.
The Democratic Party, mainstream media, and thousands of political operatives in our federal government have spent the past year-plus sabotaging the peaceful transfer of power.
They seek to undermine our republic by replacing our elective process with a permanent bureaucracy of elitists controlled by Democrats, regardless of whom we elect. This is the government Patrick Henry feared, and James Madison tried to prevent.".......
This has gone way beyond Trump and Obama.
It is now about whether we're a democracy or a Blob-ocracy.
Moar Input-UPDATE:
Stein: "Wow, wow, and double wow. Now we are starting to get a look at a conspiracy so immense it can scarcely be believed. The media, the Democrat National Committee, a genuinely brain dead FISA judge, and now the media over and over again are shown to be working night and day to destroy the constitutional system of government. The media, apparently believing it is above the law (and I guess it is), has been working hand in glove with the HRC campaign to ensure that the GenSec of the Democrat/MSM Party could not lose the election of November 2016. Yet somehow, the GenSec, Madame Mao, Jing Qing (or however the hell it’s spelled) lost to a man who should never in a million years come even close to winning. So now the DNC/MSM coalition has had to go into the highest possible gear to cover up the failed conspiracy against the nation.
Instead of trying to get the big news out, the DNC/MSM apparatus worked like demons to bottle up the news. But now the news is out: The DNC/MSM Gang illegally spied on Trump. They didn’t use a bunch of burglars at the Watergate. They used the courts and they succeeded. They actually used a Russian or Russian friendly ex-spy, gossip, and bought paid for lies to violate the election laws and the civil rights of Americans.".......Simon: "Their latest meme is "cherry picking." The memo was cherry-picked and therefore to be ignored. That's like saying a murderer who has a clean driving record and is a good cook is not a murderer. Whatever else happened, the FBI clearly used a slanderous fictional document to get a FISA ruling to surveil Carter Page without telling the court the document was a pack of lies paid for by the Clinton campaign and written by a creepy spy with old-line Soviet connections. And they did it multiple times.
The dossier was ludicrous on its face, yet the supposedly great legal minds of the FISA court accepted it as what appears to be the most important evidence for the case.
Think about that.
What we need, obviously, is the old word transparency. The public needs to see the full details of what went into the FISA decisions — and we don't need to hear any of that fake palaver about national security. Everybody's security depends on the FISA court working in a one-hundred percent unbiased manner. Otherwise we're living a nightmare.".......
Neumayr: "The media’s response to the release of the Nunes memo surpasses the level of Pravda covering a Soviet show trial. No sooner had the memo appeared than journalists immediately began throwing sand into their audience’s eyes. The story, according to the media, is not that Obama’s Justice Department/FBI snookered FISA court judges and used Hillary’s purchased Steele dossier to spy on Trumpworld. No, the scandal is that the evil Republicans exposed this outrage, and that Trump, the ultimate target of this espionage, has the gall to defend himself. How dare a defendant in our kangaroo trial defend himself with the truth — that’s the upshot of all the media’s bleating. All you can do is laugh at the intensity of the gibbering propaganda and misdirection, which is nothing more than the rage of a ruling class nabbed in an audacious act of political espionage. Katy Tur of MSNBC summed up the bewilderment of the ruling class perfectly: “None of this is normal.” In other words, we expose Republicans; they don’t expose us.
“None of this is normal” is what monopolists say when it dawns on them that they are losing their monopoly.
Much of the post-release coverage consisted of trotting out this or that “professional” from the deep state to call the Nunes memo “trash” without challenge. The kangaroo court was back in session, endlessly appealing to its own authority to bless the political espionage.
You can almost hear the Jeff Zuckers talking into their puppet-propagandists’ ears: Shoot the messenger, change the subject, talk about the “motivations” behind the memo, the “consequences” of the memo, what “Putin” might think of the memo, any “resignations” that might follow the memo’s release, but whatever you do don’t talk about the information in the memo.
The media’s favorite tactic is to treat Trump’s self-defense, even if it is rooted in the truth, as an ongoing scandal. It is appalling to the kangaroo court that he would “discredit” the probe into his campaign by pointing to discreditable behavior. That is a no-no. That is “politics.” That is “selfish,” placing his own “personal interests” above the “interests of the country.” The media’s view is that victims of political rape, provided they are Republicans, should sit back and enjoy it. Anything less is “not normal.”".......
 |
| You can't blame these heroic bureaucrats and politicians for throwing the Hillary prosecution, wiretapping Trump and trying to frame him. It's our broken Constitutional Coup system. Clearly, we need Comprehensive Coup Reform.  |
Tricky, Indeed: An Open Letter From Dick Nixon
Dear President Trump,
I am enclosing a generous donation to your re-election campaign, just like you asked for...on one condition.
Whoever your opponent is, I insist that you wiretap and frame them. All the BestestPeople(tm) assure me that it is okay. And not just okay, but patriotic and even heroic.
Since these are the New Rules in Fundamentally Transformed America, I must insist that you abide by them. And don't worry; the Washington Post and the New York Times will back you up. They're using all the same arguments that Dick Nixon once used on them to keep his dirty Government secrets out of sight. So they've got your back.
I think I speak for all journalists, bureaucrats and right-thinking people everywhere when I say wiretapping your political enemies and framing them for invented crimes is your sacred Constitutional duty, sir.
Don't let us down.
With warmest wiretap wishes,
Worse Than Watergate-UPDATE: "The memo shows interference in the 2016 presidential election by hostile elements within a United States intelligence agency. It wasn’t the Russians we had to worry about—it was rogue actors at the highest levels of the FBI and Department of Justice. Left unanswered is to what extent the West Wing knew about or was complicit in this gross abuse of power.
What we now know:
This cannot stand. There must be consequences. And they must be swift, public, and severe.".......
I am enclosing a generous donation to your re-election campaign, just like you asked for...on one condition.
Whoever your opponent is, I insist that you wiretap and frame them. All the BestestPeople(tm) assure me that it is okay. And not just okay, but patriotic and even heroic.
Since these are the New Rules in Fundamentally Transformed America, I must insist that you abide by them. And don't worry; the Washington Post and the New York Times will back you up. They're using all the same arguments that Dick Nixon once used on them to keep his dirty Government secrets out of sight. So they've got your back.
I think I speak for all journalists, bureaucrats and right-thinking people everywhere when I say wiretapping your political enemies and framing them for invented crimes is your sacred Constitutional duty, sir.
Don't let us down.
 |
| "We've come full circle. I finally got those hosers at the Post to see it my way. Democracy Dies In Disclosure, eh, boys?" |
What we now know:
- The FBI’s case to the FISA (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) Court was based almost entirely upon a partisan hit-job bought and paid for by the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign. Christopher Steele, the source of the dossier, had “financial and ideological motivations” to undermine Donald Trump according to the Nunes memo. In fact, the FBI’s file records that Steele told Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr that “he was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president.”
- Ohr’s wife was one of just seven employees at FusionGPS, the firm that was paying Christopher Steele. The personal financial relationship between the Ohrs and the dossier was concealed from the court.
- The FBI could not corroborate the information in the Steele dossier, calling it only “minimally corroborated” but did not disclose this fact to the FISA Court thus leading it to believe that the information in the dossier was either FBI work-product or that it had been independently corroborated by the FBI. Neither was true.
- The FBI did not disclose that the source of the information which formed the basis of their FISA application was a paid political operative of the Clinton campaign and the DNC.
- The FBI and the Department of Justice intentionally misled the FISA court in their applications to obtain authority to spy on Trump campaign advisor Carter Page. They did this not once, but on four separate occasions over the course of a year, including after Donald Trump was in office. The misleading applications were signed off by James Comey (three times), Andrew McCabe, Sally Yates, Dana Boente, and Rosenstein. This certainly casts the actions of each of them in a much different light. Recall that Yates was briefly the acting attorney general under Trump before the president fired her when she refused to defend the administration’s travel moratorium in court. At the time she was lionized in the media and claimed that she had to defend “this institution’s solemn obligation to always seek justice and stand for what is right.” Likewise, Rosenstein’s nearly yearlong failure to fulfill his legal obligation to produce a lawful charter as a predicate for the Mueller investigation which now appears, in context, to be nothing more than the continuation of the Democrat’s campaign against Trump using the FBI as willing collaborators.
- Comey lied to the president about the investigation while he was FBI director.
- FBI agent Peter Strozk and his mistress FBI attorney Lisa Page met with Deputy Director Andrew McCabe to discuss an “insurance policy” against Trump being elected president. We don’t yet know the names of all of those who attended the meeting.
- The texts between Peter Strozk and Lisa Page contain, “extensive discussions about the investigation, orchestrating leaks to the media, and include a meeting with Deputy Director McCabe to discuss an ‘insurance policy’ against Trump’s election.”
- The Nunes memo is just the beginning. There is more to come.
This cannot stand. There must be consequences. And they must be swift, public, and severe.".......
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