Unmasking Deep Throat

At the American Thinker, James Lewis asks,

Was Watergate a black op, too?

...Item 1.

Deep Throat was unmasked to the public when he died about ten years ago, and he turned out to be one Mark Felt, Jr., J. Edgar Hoover's associate director of the FBI.

Felt was passed over for promotion to director of the FBI by President Nixon.

By the exalted moral standards of Washington, D.C., Mark Felt had plenty of reason to want to destroy President Nixon.

It was Mark Felt who met with Woodward and Bernstein to administer one dose of deadly poison after another to President Nixon, until Nixon was abandoned by the Republican Party and resigned from the office of president of the United States.

Woodward and Bernstein received undying fame for their intrepid shoe-leather reporting, but it was Mark Felt who mixed every dose of poison they bylined.

Item 2.

The editor-in-chief at the Washington Post during Watergate was Ben Bradlee, former CIA spook, with his own long list of reasons to hate Richard Nixon.

Felt and Bradlee were both "old Washington hands," as they called themselves, both members of the D.C. Leftist Establishment from the Stalin years on. They had years of experience running black ops against America's friends and foes. They knew exactly how it's done.

Woodward and Bernstein fronted for former spooks Bradlee and Felt, old comrades-in-arms, you might say.

The media might try to tell you they eventually told the truth, after Felt and Bradlee were good and dead.

The media have no shame, and only Twitter can contradict them today.

So you can believe our self-hyping media about Watergate. Or you can choose to think Watergate turned the whole Fakestream into a raging lynch mob, because Nixon had publicly exposed Eastern Establishment Stalinists in D.C. during the Truman years.

Read more here.

"These sheriffs could wind up behind the very bars they are releasing these criminals from.”

At Truth Revolt, Mark Tapson brings to our attention an interview Newsmax conducted with Texas governor Greg Abbott on the issue of sanctuary cities.

On Newsmax TV’s The Steve Malzberg Show Wednesday, Texas' Republican Governor Greg Abbott told host Malzberg that he will confront the issue of cities that refuse to comply with immigration law by signing legislation that could jail sheriffs of sanctuary cities.

Abbott said, “We have been pushing a piece of legislation in Texas that is going to pass that I will be signing into law that imposes even sterner penalties on counties. It will include things such as further defunding them. It will impose fines. And it could impose jail time for these sheriffs to enforce the laws. Oddly enough, these sheriffs could wind up behind the very bars they are releasing these criminals from.”

Malzberg went on to question the whole premise behind protecting illegals, which Abbot called a "bogus argument": "They're saying that they're going to promote obeying the law by promoting lawlessness. And so, it's a flawed strategy."

Abbott pointed out that that flawed strategy resulted in, for example, the murder of Kate Steinle in San Francisco at the hands of an oft-deported illegal.

"This is something that Americans cannot and will not tolerate, and that is crime-by-public-policy because of neglect of enforcing the rule of law. America is a nation based upon the rule of law, and these liberals who are abandoning the rule of law are compromising the safety and the well-being of our fellow Americans, and Texas and the Trump administration are not going

Does the road to American national security run through Moscow?

Are we in a new Cold War with Russia? Professor Stephen Cohen thinks so. However, he believes detente with Russia (cooperation) is possible and utterly necessary. And he is married to the publisher of the far left liberal/progressive magazine The Nation! This interview was conducted on January 12 of this year, and the political battle Cohen predicted has certainly developed.

Russia/Trump collusion allegations do not make sense!

This cybersecurity professor named Randy Stauber has some interesting thoughts on the Russia/Trump collusion allegations. One of his points is that Trump has consistently said and followed through with action that he wants America to become energy independent. If he succeeds, it will severely hurt Russia. Trump also consistently says and followed up with action, that he wants to rebuild our military so that it becomes dominant on the world stage as it has been in the past. Why would Russia want to collude with Trump, knowing that? Thirdly, Obama removed tactical nuclear weapons from eastern Europe, allowing the largest expansion of Russia since World War II. Wouldn't the Russians want to continue that with Hillary?

Thanks to Randy Sage

Attempts to cripple the Trump presidency

Sundance writes at The Last Refuge,

Riddle me this: The Mexican government openly admits to spending millions of dollars to influence U.S. elections; a Mexican billionaire owns the most influential U.S. media outlet (NYT); the Mexican government spends tens of millions to lobby congress; and the Mexican government has dedicated $50 million to pay for U.S. legal services to keep illegal aliens from being returned to Mexico; yet somehow it’s the Russian government that is a concern. Odd no?

Dr. Stephen Cohen, a Russian expert with more than 40 years experience, says the Hillary campaign made a decision in the summer of 2016 to run against Trump and Putin, instead of Trump and Pence. He asserts that these accusations about Trump and the Russians colluding have themselves become a grave American national security threat.

Four-year-old saves mother's life!

As usual, Bookworm has several interesting posts here. The one that really moved me was a video of a four-year-old boy in England.

A British mother made a game with her children of teaching them how to call emergency services. When her four-year-old twins found her unconscious, they managed to use her thumb to open her phone, asked Siri to call emergency services, and this phone call resulted:

Our opioid epidemic

Is our opioid epidemic funded by the federal government? Do pharmacies provide people with opioids without a doctor's prescription?
This problem has "flowered" during the last seven years of the Obama administration. Purdue Pharma is the main producer of OxyContin. It is owned by one of the richest families in the country, the Sackler family, which is worth over $14 billion, according to Wikipedia.

Because they are big donors to both parties and to the Clinton Foundation, no politician is standing up and confronting them for profiting from all this misery and death. That is the question Tucker Carlson asked Democrat Tim Ryan, who represents a rural Ohio district that has had many deaths. The Congressman avoids answering Tucker's question. Ryan is for "sitting down." Tucker asked Ryan why he has not proposed penalties on doctors who overprescribe opioids or patients who misuse or people who are profiting from a scourge that is killing thousands of people.

I wish Tucker would have asked the congressman how much money he received from the Sackler family.

Gender versus Gender Identity

Guest post by Suzann Darnall

This is an area that I usually try to avoid. I don’t really care how someone chooses to identify themselves, unless it affects me personally . . . which has not happened thus far and is truly unlikely to ever happen. But there are aspects of it that are now making impacts across large portions of society and affecting certain individuals detrimentally.

I am not going to delve into the many varieties of “gender” that are being floated about. Nor am I going to go into hermaphrodites, which is an entirely different concern since it is a completely natural issue that has to be dealt with medically. My only comment about hermaphrodites is that despite whatever body construct, their DNA still registers them as genetically male or female.

That is where I want to focus. DNA. Biology. The one true measure of who is or is not male or female. DNA tells us our gender. We may choose to opt for some other gender IDENTITY, but our gender is set by our DNA. We are biologically male or female. As the Left loves to say, “The science is settled!”

This is why there really needs to be something that legally separates the two aspects of gender. Gender is a scientific fact. Gender Identity can be a personal choice. But, personal choice is not enough to make things fair across the board in some situations. While it is fine to allow women to compete against transgender women in business, it is not logical that they be forced to compete against transgender women in sports.

A “woman” who grew up as a male has a tremendous advantage in athletics. Bone density, muscle mass, and strength that comes from being male and having testosterone cannot be overcome. This is particularly true in those transgender women who opt to keep their testicles and are still pumping out testosterone.

There are many other aspects of the Gender versus Gender Identity fiasco that will eventually need to be addressed in our society. But, for now, can we just realize that gender and gender identity are NOT one and the same? There is a lot said about fairness and level playing fields, but political correctness has just kicked any idea of playing fair on the field of female athletics right off to the sidelines.

Is the influx of biological males into female athletics, under the guise of being transgender women, foreshadowing the complete destruction of what we have heretofore known as women’s sports? Is this the true male patriarchy that we have been repeatedly warned of by the feminists? If so, I must lay blame for this aberration at the feet of those same feminists!

One of the really sad aspects of this is that a biological girl who wants to be a quarterback or kicker for her high school football team will probably still be denied that option. However, a transgender girl can come in and play for the girls’ soccer team and it is pretty much illegal to deny “her” that chance. How fair is that?

Sayonara,
Suzann
http://www.suziezoo.com
http://www.woolymammoth.org

Let's see how long it takes for You Tube to take this one down!

By the way, YouTube has not yet taken down the Hannity video at The Last Refuge. Check it out!

Surveillance, unmasking, felonious leaking of intelligence

Now both Hannity and Mark Levin have picked up on the story Sundance brought us days ago. Two other veteran investigative reporters have found the existence surveillance on the Trump staff. Dr. Evelyn Fargus needs the best attorney in Washington DC! Hannity tries to warn her. It is a felony requiring ten years of imprisonment!

Within minutes after I posted this, You Tube took away the video. Here is a new video with the same information; in fact, even more information, since it has Hannity interviewing the two journalists from Circa News.

Oops! The video has been taken down again. Go here to see the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmAKE3PHlhk
Guess what, folks? Apparently You Tube has taken down Hannity program video! The link does not work!

hat tip Sundance

Are you a foodie?

Tyler Cowen notices that once we listened to the Beatles, but now we eat beatles!

Music made us get up and dance, or occasionally throw a rock. Food, especially if combined with wine, encourages a state of satiety and repose. Most conversation about food is studiously nonpolitical and removed from controversial social issues. There is a layer of left-wing critique of food corporations, genetic modification and food-associated pollution, but its impact on broader American culture has been marginal. These days, it could be said that food is the opiate of the educated classes. Anecdotally, I observe that the contemporary preoccupation with a particular kind of food fanciness and diversity has penetrated black communities less, and those are also the groups where music might in some cases remain politically important.

I don't know about that last sentence; rap music is every bit as big among young whites as it is among young blacks!

I like to think music might win back its social and intellectual resonance, but in the meantime please pass me the green mango chili fish sauce.

Give me my cell phone. I want to listen to Peter, Paul and Mary.

Some cool stuff happening in medical research

At this blog discover how scientists have mass produced stem cells, which allows them to mass produce red blood cells. Another article explains how scientists used a spinach leaf to grow a beating human heart, and a third article discusses the treatment meant for Alzheimer’s that also regrows human teeth.

Any surprises here?

Chateau Heartiste provides us with these two graphs.

Some events in Washington DC today

At The Last Refuge Sundance brings us videos and commentary on four events in Washington DC today.

First Lady Melania Trump made a public appearance today at a State Department event honoring ‘International Women of Courage’. The First Lady delivered remarks and participated in handing out awards to participants.

Earlier today President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and Vice-President Pence participated in an East Room event to celebrate women’s empowerment initiatives.

Earlier today President Trump followed through on one of his campaign promises; a White House initiative to combat the epidemic of Opioid abuse. President Trump begins with gathering information during a listening session.

Oversight Member Adam Schiff Uses Misleading Intelligence Argument to Deceive CNN Audience…

Go here to read and see detailed coverage of each event.

Hannity March 28 show

Here is Hannity's show from last night. As usual, he explores a lot of topics and has guests who know of what they speak (Gingrich, Crowley, Ingraham, and the new EPA Secretary.

Thanks to Sundance at The Last Refuge for guiding us to an understanding of what is going on in the Deep State

Here is an update from Sundance at The Last Refuge on the overview of intelligence. Sundance believes there is in Washington a UniParty consisting of PR functionaries (Congress and Senate) who dance to the tune of the lobbyists and billionaires who fund their campaigns. He writes this afternoon,

♦ Obviously Chairman Devin Nunes has placed himself outside the rails of Deep State. ♦ The UniParty now wants him removed. ♦ Nunes has become a risk. ♦ Brutally obvious questions being ignored by media become focus of wider electorate.

Chairman Nunes is the only member of the Intelligence Oversight Gang-of-Eight who has reviewed the executive level intelligence product which caused him concern. Nunes alleged in the last week he received evidence that Obama administration political figures gained access to unmasked American identities through foreign intercepts involving the Trump transition team between November 2016 and January 2017.

Media and congressional leadership intentionally skip the obvious questions:

♦ Why don’t the other seven members also go look at the same executive intel?

• Why, instead of looking at the same data, does the entire UniParty political apparatus and DC media now seem intent on eliminating Devin Nunes?

• Why doesn’t Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer or Mark Warner simply go look at the same executive intelligence product?

• Why doesn’t Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell or Richard Burr simply go look at the same executive intelligence product?

• Why doesn’t any member of the DC media ask such brutally obvious questions?

• Why is the DC UniParty both intent on not looking at the intelligence and simultaneously intent on removing Nunes, and getting the investigation removed from the House Intelligence Committee (Nunes/Schiff) and over to the Senate Intelligence Committee (Burr/Warner)?

• What is it about that Executive Office Level Intelligence Product the gang-of-eight are all so desperately afraid of?

• Why would the Senate launch another entire congressional intelligence inquiry, when the head of the Senate Intelligence Committees, Burr and Warner, are desperate NOT to see the intelligence product that causes Nunes such concern?

• What does that say about the intent of a committee when they refuse to even look at the intelligence reports they are supposed to be investigating?

These are all simple questions that hang above the political chaff and countermeasures.

These are also simply questions that explain why President Trump made this simple request:



Notice how in the three months since that request was made by President-Elect Donald Trump, only one member of congress has actually done what was requested. That member is Devin Nunes.

Now look at what’s happening around Devin Nunes.

The brutally obvious reality behind these simple questions highlights something much more than the simple SWAMP. The reactive behavior is not confined to current DC politicians or the media surrounding DC.

What we see now, is a response by multiple elements more aptly called “Deep State“.

Carly Fiorina, a former member of the CIA advisory board, calling for an independent commission seems rather odd when you accept the reality that current congressional oversight officials are refusing to even look at the current intelligence.

Odd, that is, until you realize such a request is a way for a Deeper State to protect itself.

Devin Nunes is the only official who has viewed the intelligence, therefore Devin Nunes is now a risk – he must be removed. Similarly, the committee which Devin Nunes chairs is also a risk; because if Nunes is successful his committee will not be able to look away from the intelligence product(s) he puts in front of them.

Effective this week, the UniParty has deployed Senator Richard Burr and Senator Mark Warner as countermeasures.

Read more here.

How long can you drink from a fire hose?

Bookworm writes an excellent piece on the Obama legacy.

The real Obama legacy is a toxic administrative statute, a corrupt judiciary, the end of the Rule of Law, and a world that is unstable and very dangerous.

She backs up her allegations with many specific points here.

"The show that is the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness, and groupthink"

"is,is,is,is..." This member of the Democrat National Committee is so hysterical, he cannot even connect a simple verb with the rest of a sentence.
Tucker points out that Trump is building up our energy jobs and production and our military. How would those priorities be in the interest of Putin?

Gowdy: "General Flynn was unmasked. That is not only a breach of protocol, that is the felonious dissemination of classified information."
Tucker: "Why would Director Comey be willing to reveal the existence of some investigations, but not comment on others?"
Gowdy: "That was really surprising to me.

Russians. The Democrats and Republicans are each seeing a different movie.

Sanctuary cities conference in New York. A liberal law professor from New York thinks America's immigrations laws are inhumane. Tucker points out that illegal immigration has real, measurable costs to American citizens, such as depressing wages of black men. So says the US Civil Rights Commission.

Charles Murray was invited to speak to a class at Notre Dame today. Murray believes that little boys who grow up without fathers tend to be unprepared for life.

Bill O'Reilly has written a book contrasting the snowflake culture versus the traditional old school culture. Snowflakes say "I'm entitled. You've got to give me this! The world owes you. The government owes you. Sooner or later they are going to crash land in a puddle, and dissolve! Billy Joel is an example of an old school guy. He believed in himself and developed his talent.

Finally, a person who was born a man wins a women's weightlifting event in Australia. Most sports commentators were afraid to ask if this was fair to the women competitors.

"when intelligence is weaponized as a political tool"

Have you read Sundance's explanation of “SCIF” – Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility?

To understand the larger Devin Nunes briefing issues it is important to focus on the word “compartmented”.

Intelligence information is housed by compartments. Each intelligence unit holds intelligence unique to that compartment. The FBI Counter-Intelligence Unit would hold the intel information specific to their task or assignment. The CIA would hold their own compartmented intel; again, specific to their task and objectives. So too would the NSA or Pentagon.

This compartmented structure is what led to the creation of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, ODNI. The 911 commission recommended the position to serve as a hub able to ensure intelligence sharing; that is – to ensure intelligence was not intentionally withheld from other compartments when needed.

It is doubtful the 911 commission ever gave thought to what might happen when intelligence is weaponized as a political tool. The DNI is a political appointment, a cabinet member, of the President.

Thoughtful exposition – If the executive branch, the President, wanted to weaponize intelligence as a political tool, he/she would have control over such weaponization as an outcome of their political appointees within the: CIA (Brennan), NSA (Rogers), FBI (Comey), DNI (Clapper), DoD (Ash Carter), etc.

The balance or civilian (representative) oversight into the compartmented intelligence falls to a very select group known as the Intelligence Gang of Eight.

Four Democrats and Four Republicans (four minority party and four majority party political leaders) for a total of eight. Four from the House and Four from the Senate. –Understand the Gang of Eight Here– The Gang-of-Eight can, if they choose, interact with the intelligence product with the same level of security clearance as the compartment being reviewed.

Only these eight members can interact with the intelligence product in this way. This ensures their ability to conduct oversight.

It is critical to understand the difference between the House Intelligence Committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Gang of Eight. Only two members from the House Intelligence Committee (chair and minority), and two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee (chair and minority) are participants. The other four are Speaker of the House, minority leader of House, Leader of Senate and Minority leader of Senate. The latter four are not part of any other intel committee.

Expanding on Compartmented Intelligence. The originating intel agency holds their proprietary intel they create in their SCIF. They may also receive intel products created for them, which they will also host in their unique SCIF. Thus, intel is compartmentalized.

However, the White House -the executive branch- is also a host of intelligence information and consequently the White House has their own SCIF which holds intel products they would create (very little), or intel products created for them (the vast majority). An example of a product created for the executive branch would be the President’s Daily Briefing (PDB).

The PDB as a whole product would only exist in the White House SCIF. Parts of the PDB would be hosted by the originating participant, ex. CIA, NSA, FBI, DoD, State Dept. etc., but only the White House would have the fully assembled product. After all, it’s assembled for the President.

Putting the “Oversight” structure together with the “Compartmented” intelligence security you will note that only a few people ‘could’ access the PDB. The President (Obama), the President’s National Security Advisor (S. Rice), the President’s Director of National Intelligence (Clapper), or any member of the aforementioned oversight gang-of-eight.

Hopefully I haven’t lost anyone yet.

♦ If the House Intelligence Committee, or Senate Intelligence Committee, as a whole – wanted to see the PDB they would have to request the individual components from the individual intelligence agencies because the PDB product was not created for them; it was created for the Office of The President.

Only the Chairman and Minority leader from each Intel committee could go to the White House to see the PDB end product. [Remember, they alone are four of the Gang-of-Eight.]

This is why Devin Nunes, who is a Go8 member, must request the intelligence from each department (NSA, FBI etc.) in order to share it with the committee. Nunes cannot export or import product he did not create.

The Congressional SCIF would then hold the compartmented information after delivery for the committee members to review under very tight controls. The intelligence is removed/deleted after review. No systems are connected.

Our research indicates that Chairman Devin Nunes, a gang of eight member, reviewed intelligence reports (most likely PDB’s) that were assembled exclusively for the office of the President (Obama). That is why he went to the White House SCIF to review.

The intelligence product would be delivered to that SCIF system for his review, most likely by the ODNI. It would be removed from that SCIF system after his review. No systems are connected.

Nunes stated the intelligence product he reviewed was “not related to Russia, or the FBI Russian counter-intelligence investigation”. So the product itself was a product for the President, that was not part of the ongoing FBI counter-intel product.

Again, this is why it seems likely it was part of a PDB – unless it was a separate product, apart from the PDB, which was created for the Office of the President. [I view the latter as highly doubtful because it would be too risky for the President to be asking for specific ‘stand alone’ intel on something Trump.]

♦ Now, HERE IS WHERE YOU NEED TO PUT ON A “Politics only” FILTER.

Couldn’t Adam Schiff (another gang of eight member) go look at the same intelligence as Nunes did?

Our research indicates that Chairman Devin Nunes, a gang of eight member, reviewed intelligence reports (most likely PDB’s) that were assembled exclusively for the office of the President (Obama). That is why he went to the White House SCIF to review.

The intelligence product would be delivered to that SCIF system for his review, most likely by the ODNI. It would be removed from that SCIF system after his review. No systems are connected.

Nunes stated the intelligence product he reviewed was “not related to Russia, or the FBI Russian counter-intelligence investigation”. So the product itself was a product for the President, that was not part of the ongoing FBI counter-intel product.

Again, this is why it seems likely it was part of a PDB – unless it was a separate product, apart from the PDB, which was created for the Office of the President. [I view the latter as highly doubtful because it would be too risky for the President to be asking for specific ‘stand alone’ intel on something Trump.]

♦ Now, HERE IS WHERE YOU NEED TO PUT ON A “Politics only” FILTER.

Couldn’t Adam Schiff (another gang of eight member) go look at the same intelligence as Nunes did?

The same political perspective applies to Minority leader Nancy Pelosi, Minority leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Dianne Feinstein. For each of them to see the information would eliminate their ability to talk about it, or criticize Nunes. The politics of the situation are more valuable so long as they don’t engage in actual truthful knowledge.

Chairman Nunes cannot share his intelligence finding with the House Committee, because the intelligence product is beyond their intel authority. Nunes has to ask for it in portions as each compartment would permit and authorize; And so long as Pelosi, Schumer and Schiff refuse to look at the intelligence that ‘only they’ are allowed to see, they can continue to ridicule and take political advantage.

This reality is also the reason why the media is so able to manipulate the narrative around Chairman Nunes; and simultaneously why he’s able to say he’s done nothing wrong.

Earlier this month, President Obama’s former Defense Deputy, Evelyn Farkas, admitted to sharing classified intelligence gathered during an Obama authorized spying operation against the Trump Transition Team –SEE HERE– The reasoning she gave was:

[…] the Trump folks – if they found out HOW we knew what we knew about their, the Trump staff, – that they would try to compromise those sources and methods; meaning we no longer have access to that intelligence. (link)

♦ And now yesterday: Earlier this month, President Obama’s former Defense Deputy, Evelyn Farkas, admitted to sharing classified intelligence gathered during an Obama authorized spying operation against the Trump Transition Team –SEE HERE– The reasoning she gave was:

[…] the Trump folks – if they found out HOW we knew what we knew about their, the Trump staff, – that they would try to compromise those sources and methods; meaning we no longer have access to that intelligence. (link)

♦ And now yesterday:


President Trump’s Director of National Intelligence (DNI) is former Indiana Senator Dan Coats. Who was announced January 5th 2017, but was delayed confirmation by Democrats until March 16th.

Go here to see more photos of the players in the scenarios listed above.

Is Trump inside Schumer's head?

From the New York Post:

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., caused a scene at a Manhattan restaurant when he began yelling at a wealthy and well-connected Donald Trump supporter that the POTUS is “a liar.”

Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, lost his cool on Sunday night at Upper East Side restaurant Sette Mezzo, according to witnesses.

He was dining with friends when he encountered Joseph A. Califano Jr. — the former U.S. secretary of health, education and welfare under President Jimmy Carter and domestic policy adviser to President Lyndon B. Johnson — and his wife, Hilary, who were having a quiet dinner.

Onlookers said Schumer was incensed that Hilary — the daughter of William S. Paley, the founder and chairman of CBS — had voted for Trump, even though her husband, Joseph, is a well-known Democrat.

One witness said of the restaurant rant, “They are a highly respected couple, and Schumer made a scene, yelling, ‘She voted for Trump!’ The Califanos left the restaurant, but Schumer followed them outside.” On the sidewalk, Schumer carried on with his fantastical filibuster: “ ‘How could you vote for Trump? He’s a liar!’ He kept repeating, ‘He’s a liar!’ ”

Hilary confirmed the confrontation, telling Page Six, “Sen. Schumer was really rude . . . He’s our senator, and I don’t really like him. Yes, I voted for Trump. Schumer joined us outside and he told me Trump was a liar. I should have told him that Hillary Clinton was a liar, but I was so surprised I didn’t say anything.”

Are you missing Barack and Hillary?

Bookworm writes in this excerpt,

Possibly the worst thing Obama did was to create a partisan administrative state. As is shown by the leaks aimed at invalidating Trump’s presidency; the attempts to manipulate documents in all administrative sectors; the EPA hysteria about “anti-science”; the IRS scandal; and myriad other agency drama and corruption, Obama has destroyed the idea of a non-partisan administrative state, one in which employees, regardless of their political preferences, simply do their job. Under Obama, partisanship, no matter how corrupt, was encouraged and rewarded — and most certainly, when employees were caught, they were not disciplined. If they were, IRS chief Koskinen would have been shown the curb years ago.

Have you seen this music video on the FBI's investigation into Hillary's emails of classified information?

"The war on coal is over!"

Over 130 coal mines in West Virginia have been shut down since 2009. Trump made his promise to the people of West Virginia, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania, and he is keeping his promise. Today he signed Executive orders that will lead America to energy independence. Please note the deep respect he and Vice President Pence show to the men who do that very hard work.

Who are the "people on the hill?"

This is Obama's Deputy Asst. Defense Secretary, admitting they were collecting information on the "Trump staff." Does she even realize she committed a felony if she shared this information about US citizens with anyone outside the intelligence community?

Is London a Harry Potter fantasyland?

Katie Hopkins comes on the Tucker Carlson show at the 28:27 mark last night. JK Rowland called her a Nazi sympathizer. Hopkins says Rowling wants to believe London is a fantasyland, as in her Harry Potter books. She says England is divided between Londoners and non-Londoners on the issue of how to respond to terrorism. She describes London as "Obama on steroids."

How will Comey do this week?

At The Last Refuge, Sundance writes that the case against FBI Director is growing.

Director Comey intentionally obfuscates knowledge of the question from Rep Stefanik; using parseltongue verbiage to get himself away from the sunlit timeline.

The counter-intel investigation, by his own admission, began in July 2016. Congress was not notified until March 2017. That’s an eight month period – Obviously obfuscating the quarterly claim moments earlier.

The uncomfortable aspect to this line of inquiry is Comey’s transparent knowledge of the politicized Office of the DNI James Clapper by President Obama.

The first and second questions from Stefanik were clear. Comey’s understanding of the questions was clear. However, Comey directly evaded truthful response to the second question. When you watch the video, you can see Comey quickly connecting the dots on where this inquiry was going.

There is only one reasonable explanation for FBI Director James Comey to be launching a counter-intel investigation in July 2016, notifying the White House and Clapper, and keeping it under wraps from congress. Comey was a participant in the intelligence gathering for political purposes – wittingly, or unwittingly.

As a direct consequence of this mid-thought-stream Comey obfuscation, it is now clear -at least to me- that Director Comey was using his office as a facilitating conduit for the political purposes of the Obama White House.

Read more here.

Will this be his last video?

The nuclear option? No, it is the Reed option!

Tit for tat! Harry Reid set the new rules, and we're gonna follow them!

GOP Pelosiism: We have to pass the bill in order to find out what's in it!

Smug, sneering, condescending: why they lost the election!

They have the schools, Hollywood, academia, news media. Sneering at people in an attempt to feel better about themselves. Can they stop?

Choosing stupidity

"Are you Hitler? "We live in the age of the Hitlerization of everything, because it keeps you stupid!"

Mark gives us some Hitler history. "Late you come, but still, you come!" You didn't object when Barack Obama used the power of our modern presidency, but now you object to Trump using those powers!"

"When everybody's Hitler, nobody's Hitler. We now live in a time when there are only good people and Hitler, and there's nothing in between! The Left is now at a level of historical illiteracy, about to drown in a sea of ignorance."

A war of attrition

Kurt Schlichter writes at Town Hall, ...

See, the big news this week isn’t the first quarter Obamacare repeal festival of ineptitude – it’s that Neil Gorsuch is going to sail through to confirmation, leaving the burning wreckage of the SCOTUS filibuster in his wake. That’s the money right there, a win guaranteeing that the future confirmation of RBG’s replacement – who I hope is so conservative he eats raw meat off the bone – will be just a mere 51-vote technicality. And there’s other stuff too: laying the Keystone pipe, rolling back regulations, ICE booting out aspiring Democrats, and Trump wrangling new jobs. Even the fact that Team Trump was wiretapped was reaffirmed despite the NYT denying that when it reported that Team Trump was wiretapped it really meant that Team Trump was wiretapped. Slowly but surely, small win after small win – we’re moving toward victory. But thanks to kongressional klutzes like Ryan, a war of attrition is how it’s going to have to be.

...You don’t always win, even when you are exhausted from all your prior #winning. The enemy was delighted at the repeal screw-up: ABC News broke in with a special report, libgasmic at Ryan pulling the hapless bill, while the circle of smart over at CNN was breaking out the cuddles and cigs, certain that this was finally the beginning of the end of Trump. Nope. It’s still the beginning of the beginning. We’re are about 67 days in out of 1461, just 4.29% done, and the haters’ attempts to pronounce the Trump administration DOA are wishful unthinking.

Read more here.

It begins: the crack down on sanctuary cities

Sundance reports,

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announces the DOJ intends to crack down on municipal authorities who refuse to comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers to remove illegal alien criminals.

Attorney General Sessions announced if municipal authorities at city, county and state level, refuse to comply with U.S. immigration law they will lose federal funding provided by the Department of Justice through federal grants. The DOJ will also take action to claw back any grant monies that have been provided to sanctuary cities who continue to refuse compliance.

Republicans fighting each other

A writer named Jen Kuznicki alleges that Sundance at The Conservative Treehouse, a popular blogger and website that I often link to or excerpt from, is anti-Semitic. She sites two tweets that do seem anti-Semitic to me.

“Sundance” has been identified as Mark Bradman of Florida, and the twitter handle for Treehouse is @theLastRefuge2. Levin noticed certain tweets from the website’s twitter account that smacked of antisemitism. Here they are:
Follow
TheLastRefuge @TheLastRefuge2
.@marklevinshow is an "America Second Constitutionalist" - Support comes AFTER his advocacy 4 Nation State of Israel https://twitter.com/Mediaite/status/676561856232865793 …
5:53 PM - 14 Dec 2015
20 20 Retweets 17 17 likes
Follow
TheLastRefuge @TheLastRefuge2
@realDonaldTrump puts America First. That immediately makes him "less than" for @marklevinshow who supports Israel First and hence, Cruz.
5:56 PM - 14 Dec 2015

Kuznicki writes,

I believe the tweets attack Mark Levin because he is Jewish, and insinuate that Mark doesn’t believe in America. That’s a hefty charge against America’s leading author on the philosophy of America and its founding.

...For those who are in the tank for whatever the president does at any time for any reason, Dr. Sundance delivers. But that’s not how normal people think.

Normal people, balanced people, take one issue at a time, figure things out for themselves, and you know what else? The American people love freedom.

The failed AHCA failed because moderate Republicans didn’t want to repeal Obamacare. That puts them on the side of the Democrats. Sundance is on the side of moderate Republicans, though he claims he’s just a “misfit” he’s an ideologue of the progressives who want more of your freedom taken away, and want Trump to do the taking.

I am pleased that not even Donald Trump wants to take our liberty, being careful not to trash conservatives after this failed bill.

Read more here.
So here we go again, Republicans fighting each other.

Billionaires and their PR Firms

At The Last Refuge, Sundance looks at some of the billionaires who control funding for the re-election campaigns of members of Congress. He links to this post from California on the Koch brothers threatening to withhold re-election funding for their puppets in the House. In addition to the millions of dollars in donations from the Koch Brothers, Sundance lists these donors and the media enterprises they control.

Billionaire BIG CLUB – Influence and Control agents:

♦ Billionaire Carlos Slim – PR Firm: New York Times.

♦ Billionaire Robert Mercer – PR Firm: Breitbart Media

♦ Billionaire Jeff Bezos – PR Firm: Washington Post

♦ Billionaire Rupert Murdoch – PR Firm: Wall Street Journal, Fox News Corp.

♦ Billionaire Farris Wilks – PR Firm: The Daily Wire (Ben Shapiro)

♦ Billionaire Cary Katz – PR Firm: Conservative Review and CRTV (Mark Levin)

Read more here.

"the felonious dissemination of classified information"

Trey Gowdy wants to bring back Comey and Rogers on Tuesday to talk about the political use of the unmasking of US citizens. But, then he appears to contradict himself at the end, when he asks why these investigations must be conducted in public!

Oops! Priebus: "We have one party!"

Oops! Listen to Reince Priebus at the 2:32 mark in this clip: "We have one party!" Then, he quickly corrects himself and says there are two parties! You were right the first time Reince! Reince is also right about the "gossip hounds" in the media.

Media lynch mob

More criticism of "hard-line conservatives." This time it comes from Chris Wallace. Jim Jordan explains that the Freedom Caucus was just trying to keep their promises to their voters.

Then, Bill Crystal, of all people, advises Trump on what he should be doing! That takes some nerve, from the #Never Trumper of all #Never Trumpers!

Kudos to Newt Gingrich, who talks about the lynch mob mentality of the media (I preferred him to Romney in 2012).

"What you saw this week was simply that things were a lot more rotten in Washington than we think!"

I know it is the obnoxious Chuck Todd and NBC, but this is my first time to hear Budget Director Mike Mulvany, and I was impressed. Todd: "This is the biggest broken promise that anybody has made in American political history!" Exaggerate much, Chuck?
Chuckie follows that with, "You have the duty to make Obamacare work!" Mulvany: "You cannot fix a broken system!" "The government can force you to have something you didn't want?" "You are not going to fix a system that doesn't trust you to do what is in your best interest!" "What you saw this week was simply that things were a lot more rotten in Washington than we think!"

"Chuck you" Todd wasn't done. He wanted to know why Trump tweeted to urge his followers to watch Judge Jeanine's show last night. Is Trump trying to subtly get rid of the liberal media's friend, Paul Ryan? "Not for one second, you big baby!"

"It was the first follower who transformed the leader from a lone nut into a leader!"

Sundance from The Last Refuge wonders if other members of the Freedom Caucus will have the guts to follow Texas Congressman Poe.

"Who spilled mustard on the cactus?"

"You can have the hay, I'm looking for a bone!"

Standing out in a crowd

The witty Greg Gutfeld and an equally witty panel!

"If you asked President Obama what his biggest mistake was, he'd say, "I was too perfect." The media would nod like starry-eyed blowfish!"

Leaks (GOP) versus Russian collusion (Dems). It's like two hobos fighting in the street over the last cigarette butt."

Should President Trump get a pet? What species? It would be the one species liberals hate. PETA would say, "You can eat it!" The media would say it has Russian ties."

The Gorsuch hearings: did anyone watch? Is Gorsuch a robot?

Did you know Greg only gets profiled in the public library?

"Expendable and interchangeable sales force"

At The Last Refuge, Sundance writes,

What “Deep State” is to intelligence, military intervention and foreign policy – The “BIG CLUB” is to matters of domestic economics.

Politicians do not write laws. Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer do not sit in their offices writing out scripts of laws and legislation; no politician does. Politicians are the faces who sell legislation that unseen hands create. The Big Club are the hands that create the legislation.

As such, it makes no sense to argue about the salesmanship of Ted Cruz or Elizabeth Warren when neither Cruz nor Warren are creating the legislative constructs they are selling.

Indeed, it makes much more sense to focus the attention on the unseen hands that are never discussed – These are the roots of the issues, the politicians are merely the expendable and interchangeable sales force.



The Big Club are massive and complex networks of lobbying groups who actually write legislation. What follows, depending on their own evaluation of importance therein, are payments to the politicians to go and sell their construct.

The amount of payment varies depending on how valuable the construct is to the interests of the Club. Big legislative constructs that provide the Club large income increases are worth more than smaller ones.

This is the accurate background framework to consider ObamaCare.

Within The BIG CLUB there are, essentially, two larger factions with interest: Big Labor and Wall Street (big crony-business). There are other factions like Big Green (Al Gore) etc. However, for the sake of ObamaCare the two that matter are “Big Labor” (AFL-CIO, SEIU, AFSCME, UFCW etc), and Wall Street (U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Tom Donohue).

The Big Club has paid for ObamaCare’s construct, and they are not going to allow their sales force to walk away from it. From their position, this is a massive ‘multi-multi-hundreds-of-millions’ expenditure that has already taken place.

Tom Donohue (U.S. CoC) already lost hundreds of millions when his construct (his team actually did the writing) of TPP was lost due to Donald Trump. Donohue’s TPP loss followed the loss of Comprehensive Immigration Reform (2014 Dave Brat), and his loss of Common Core Education standards, again with Donald Trump.

Donohue spent hundreds of millions on Gang of Eight, Common Core, TPP and ObamaCare.

...Big Labor support ObamaCare for a few reasons. #1 it granted fiscal stability to their retirement programs which were failing with the increased costs of providing healthcare coverage. #2 it creates additional profit margin space within union companies for more lucrative compensation contracts. And #3 ideologically it was constructed to eventually end up with a single-payer system. All three points are great for Big Labor.

Wall Street supports ObamaCare because it: #1 removes the cost of providing healthcare from the cost of producing products in the U.S. [However, you’ll note the consumer price of manufactured goods never actually decreases, instead the savings go to the profit margin.] #2 allows the manufacturing cost equity to streamline globalization efforts.

Both primary factions within the BIG CLUB stood to gain substantially if they could shift the cost of healthcare from their individual ledgers into the personal checkbooks of the U.S. consumer. Hence, they looked at the lobbying cost of ObamaCare as a long-term legislative investment with a massive upside.

Now, fast forward to 2017 and President Trump is in office on a promise to repeal and replace ObamaCare.

Oh snap, NOW what is the Big Club going to do?

Stall for time…. Quick construct plan to deal with the unexpected. Stall, block cabinet and down-stream confirmations… Activate astroturf to provide Sales Force cover… Paul Ryan lies to Sean Hannity… etc.

More things reconciling now?

President-Elect Trump met with Richard Trumka and outlined larger administration pro-jobs objective assurances.

Once in office, President Trump works around Donohue and goes to the manufacturing and business community directly.

Now Trump is highlighting how deregulation, tax policy and other pro-growth America-First objectives will more than compensate them for any ObamaCare recall.

Read more here.

Sanctuary Sally

206 criminal illegal aliens released in one week. 142 came from Travis county, Texas, where Sanctuary Sally is Sheriff!

"They pick up the pieces and clean up the blood after the attack!"

The Congressional oversight committees are supposed to be preventing this, but they are not. "This bulk acquisition is inhibiting their ability to detect terrorist threats in advance. They are going to determine who the emperor is and what he does.

Another DC secret we don't hear about

Did you know

A total of 501 juveniles have been reported missing in D.C. since the beginning of the year. This startling number has forced the hands of several officials who’ve written a letter to call on special help from the Justice Department in investigating the matter.

Matt Agorist reports at The Free Thought Project,

The Twitter profile for the DC police department is quite literally riddled with images of missing young black and latino girls. In spite of the officials’ concern and the posts on Twitter, police are assuring the public that there is nothing out of the ordinary.

Read more here.

"We are getting single-payer. Conduct yourself accordingly."

At The Last Refuge, Sundance gives us some "final thoughts" on the failed healthcare reform.

All DC Republicans and all DC Democrats are the DC UniParty. The DC UniParty is fueled by special interest donor lobbying money. The DC UniParty created Obamacare and the DC UniParty wants ObamaCare to remain in place.

...In 2009 The U.S. Chamber of Commerce (Donohue), the AFL-CIO (Trumka), SEIU (Stern), AFSCME together with Wall Street, Big Pharma and Big Healthcare entered into negotiations with a massive White House team to create ObamaCare.

...it wasn’t President Trump who wanted the Ryan Healthcare plan to fail, it was the UniParty – including Ryan himself. President Trump wanted the approach to succeed, the UniParty did not.

...ObamaCare will fail. ObamaCare was designed to fail. What follows the failure of ObamaCare is a single-payer system, again supported by the Big Government UniParty.

There was one shot at avoiding the single-payer conclusion. That shot was to actually pass the repeal and replace O-Care proposal previously designed by Dr. Tom Price.

...The UniParty republicans do not want ObamaCare repealed.

No repeal bill can pass because of this essential fact.

…The Republicans Do Not Want to Repeal ObamaCare!…

So if you have a plan for legislation to repeal ObamaCare that does not include Republicans or Democrats, your healthcare plan might succeed.

Otherwise it’s a unicorn fantasy.

We are getting single-payer.

Conduct yourselves accordingly.

Read more here.

“unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance.”

Ayaan Hirsi Ali writes at the Hoover Institute,

...political Islam implies a constitutional order fundamentally incompatible with the US Constitution and with the “constitution of liberty” that is the foundation of the American way of life.

...The conflict between the United States and political Islam in modern times dates back to at least 1979, when the US embassy in Tehran was seized by Islamic revolutionaries and fifty-two Americans were held hostage for 444 days. In the decades that followed, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania reminded Americans of the threat posed by political Islam. But it was not until the 9/11 attacks that political Islam as an ideology attracted sustained public attention. The September 11, 2001, attacks were inspired by a political ideology that has its foundation in Islam, specifically its formative period in Medina.

Since 9/11, at least $1.7 trillion has been spent on combat and reconstruction costs in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The total budgetary cost of the wars and homeland security from 2001 through 2016 is more than $3.6 trillion. Yet in spite of the sacrifices of more than 5,000 armed service personnel who have lost their lives since 9/11 and the tens of thousands of American soldiers who have been wounded, today political Islam is on the rise around the world. Violence is the most obvious—but not the only—manifestation of this trend. Jihadist groups have proliferated all over the Middle East and North Africa, especially where states are weak and civil wars rage (Iraq, Libya, Somalia, and Syria, not forgetting northern Nigeria). Islam-inspired terrorists also have a global reach. France is in a permanent state of emergency, while the United States has been profoundly shaken by terror attacks in Boston (the Marathon bombers); Fort Hood, Texas; San Bernardino, California; Orlando, Florida; and Ohio State University, to name but a few.

Of the last sixteen years, the worst year for terrorism was 2014, with ninety-three countries experiencing attacks and 32,765 people killed. The second worst was 2015, with 29,376 deaths. Last year, four radical Islamic groups were responsible for 74 percent of all deaths from terrorism: the Islamic State (also known as ISIS), Boko Haram, the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. Although the Muslim world itself bears the heaviest burden of jihadist violence, the West is increasingly under attack.

How large is the jihadist movement in the world? In Pakistan alone, where the population is almost entirely Muslim, 13 percent of Muslims surveyed—more than 20 million people—said that bombings and other forms of violence against civilian targets are often or sometimes justified in order to defend Islam from its enemies.

Disturbingly, the number of Western-born Muslim jihadists is sharply increasing. The United Nations estimated in November 2014 that some 15,000 foreign fighters from at least eighty nations have traveled to Syria to join the radical jihadists. Roughly a quarter of them come from Western Europe.

...From 9/11 until now, the dominant Western response to political Islam has been to focus only on “terror” and “violent extremism.” This approach has failed. In focusing only on acts of violence, we have ignored the ideology that justifies, promotes, celebrates, and encourages those acts. By not fighting a war of ideas against political Islam (or “Islamism”) as an ideology and against those who spread that ideology, we have made a grave error.

If Islamism is the ideology, then dawa encompasses all the methods by which it is spread. The term “dawa” refers to activities carried out by Islamists to win adherents and enlist them in a campaign to impose sharia law on all societies. Dawa is not the Islamic equivalent of religious proselytizing, although it is often disguised as such by blending humanitarian activities with subversive political activities.

The ultimate goal of dawa is to destroy the political institutions of a free society and replace them with strict sharia. Islamists rely on both violent and nonviolent means to achieve their objectives.

Dawa is to the Islamists of today what the “long march through the institutions” was to twentieth-century Marxists. It is subversion from within, the use of religious freedom in order to undermine that very freedom. After Islamists gain power, dawa is to them what Gleichschaltung  (synchronization) of all aspects of German state, civil, and social institutions was to the National Socialists.

There are of course differences. The biggest difference is that dawa is rooted in the Islamic practice of attempting to convert non-Muslims to accept the message of Islam. As it is an ostensibly religious missionary activity, proponents of dawa enjoy a much greater protection by the law in free societies than Marxists or fascists did in the past.

The global infrastructure of dawa is well funded, persistent, and resilient. From 1973 through 2002, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia spent an estimated $87 billion to promote dawa efforts abroad. Josh Martin estimates that, since the early 1970s, Middle Eastern charities have distributed $110 billion, $40 billion of which found its way to sub-Saharan Africa and contributed heavily to Islamist ideological indoctrination there. Nongovernmental organizations in Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia continue to distribute large sums overseas to finance ideological indoctrination and activities. Powerful foundations such as the Qatar Foundation continue to grant financial support and legitimacy to radical Islamic ideology around the world.

Many Islamic charitable foundations use zakat (mandatory charity) funds to mix humanitarian outreach with ideological indoctrination, laying the ground for future intolerance, misogyny, and jihad, even if no violence is used in the short term. When informal funding mechanisms are included, the zakat funds available could reach “hundreds of billions of dollars” worldwide each year.

...To resist the insidious advance of political Islam, we need to develop a strategy to counter not only those who use violence to advance their politico-religious objectives—the jihadists—but also the great and complex ideological infrastructure known as dawa, just as we countered both the Red Army and the ideology of communism in the Cold War. Focusing only on “terror” as a tactic is insufficient. We ignore at our peril the ideological infrastructure that supports political Islam in both its violent and its nonviolent forms.

It is not just that jihad is an extension of dawa; according to some observers, it is dawa by other means. Put differently, nonviolent and violent Islamists differ only on tactics; they share the same goal, which is to establish an unfree society ruled by strict sharia law. Institutionally, nonviolent Islamists have benefited from terror attacks committed by jihadists because such attacks make nonviolent Islamists appear moderate in the eyes of Western governments, even when their goals and values are not.

...While recognizing that our freedoms are sacrosanct, we must also remember the wise words of Karl Popper, who memorably identified what he called “the paradox of tolerance,” namely that “unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance.”

Read more here.

Feminists: Pro-Choice? Not Exactly!

Guest post by Suzann Darnall

There is so much going on in the feminist sphere right now that it is almost impossible to know where to begin and where to end. So, this is gonna be a bit of a free-for-all against my pink pussyhat pet peeve of the week. Oh, okay, in full disclosure, my particular topic selection has been a pet peeve of mine for months, years, and even decades!

The war on stay-at-home wives and mothers has been pretty much going on since ERA, NOW, and feminists have been around. I know it is why I decided to not be involved in the so-called fight for equality and choice when I was still in junior high school. As a young teenager I realized that what feminists called equality and choice was actually about them wanting to denigrate men and not allow women to do anything except what feminists deemed acceptable.

That war was further waged against women like my mother, me, and my oldest daughter, when Hillary Clinton made her now infamous comment, “I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life.” This arrogant witch seems to discount that some of us ARE fulfilling our chosen profession when we stay home, bake cookies, and hostess teas. That is a lot of what my mother and I did as stay-home mothers and Air Force wives. It was our choice and our career. Every bit as fulfilling as whatever she was doing in her political arena of corruption and controversy, as well as a whole lot more important to the welfare of those around us!

Now another volley has been fired across the bows of women who choose to put family first and have a home-based career. This time a so-called journalist from Australia has put into blunt words what I have always felt many feminists here in America would like to have signed into law. Sarrah Le Marquand wrote a column titled, “It should be illegal to be a stay-at-home mum.” I won’t go into her article in depth ‘cause I think her title says it all. In essence she lectures that all men and women must subscribe to her ideas of what is best for families, selves, and society. Which is not about allowing people to choose what they want to do and what they think is best for their families and selves.

I am tired of feminists across the decades telling me what my choices should be or that I cannot possibly be equal if I do not make the choices they approve. I have no need to have a bunch of venomous hags dressed in white and wearing pink pussyhats trying to tell me how to feel empowered.

I am empowered. I am equal. I am important. I make my choices. I exercise my freedoms. I am woman, hear me ignore . . . all the vitriolic hate speech from feminists. Wanna preach pro-choice and equality? How about y’all quit dumping on those of us who choose life, choose to be wives and mothers, choose to stay home, and feel 100% equal to our husbands while we do it???


Sayonara,
Suzann
http://www.suziezoo.com
http://www.woolymammoth.org

GOP unable to get 216 votes to repeal and replace Obamacare

Speaker Ryan has announced that consensus was not reached on the repeal and replacement of Obamacare. They did not have the 216 votes we needed. We will proceed with tax reform, securing the border.

"The show that is the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness, and groupthink"

Can you believe the GOP Congress might not even put forward an immigration bill this year? After Trump made it one of his major campaign planks? Trump needs to put forward actual legislation, not just talking points. The people who fund these politicians like mass immigration. They do not have to put their kids in chaotic schools or go to filthy emergency rooms. Trump needs to let them know that the White House will support primary challengers who will support the legislation.

Who is paying the law office to defend the illegal aliens who raped the 14-year-old girl? The lawyer won't answer. Can you believe the Maryland sanctuary school district superintendent? The worst crime is using naughty language that is xenophobia. If you don't like it, shut up, or we'll call the cops! Political indoctrination done by force. Would you want your daughter in the same classroom with this guy? "I don't know him."

No defense

At Ace of Spades, JJ Sefton has a different take on today's healthcare vote.

The big story is the President aligning with Paul Ryan and the GOP-e to force a vote on by any honest metric is a joke. I find it interesting that the same people who have been screaming for years about the sell-out traitors in the GOP are now complaining that the Freedom Caucus is grandstanding because they aren't getting 100% of what they want. Dear Lord, this is not a friggin' game to see who is swinging the biggest dick. We're talking about doing away with an evil edict that is the centerpiece of socialism that kills freedom, kills our economy and kills people. I voted for Donald Trump among other things to repeal this thing root and branch, not to suck up and appease the very people and forces he claimed to be fighting against. His ultimatum of take it or leave it is really, to be charitable, unacceptable to me and insulting. There's no defense of him hitching his wagon to this shit show and then railing against anyone who opposes him.

Democrats strategy on Gorsuch

Sundance provides us with this delicious close-up of Senator Chuck Schumer, who

“urges his colleagues to vote no”; where “urging colleagues” means get in line, or else. Thus setting the stage for a filibuster, well, that would be, if all 48 Democrat Senators follow the compliance demand.

Therein lies the outline of the very tenuous Democrat strategy against Gorsuch: Force Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to use the nuclear option to pass Altar Boy Gorsuch to the Supreme Court with 51 votes instead of 60.


Obviously, if 8 Democrat Senators vote to confirm Judge Gorsuch – Schumer will have been rebuked. Those Democrats will have their offices moved to the never cleaned bathroom stall at the end of the cellar (ie. no-financial DNC support for their reelection bids).

Senator Schumer is not “technically” calling for a filibuster, that would be impolitic, audacious, undiplomatic and transparent to the national electorate. So Senator Schumer instead “urges his colleagues” to vote no. Same/Same.

However, accepting all reasonableness is now cast asunder in favor of political posturing, if his colleagues comply they run the very real risk of seeing nomination #2 (Kennedy’s replacement), and nomination #3 (Ginsburg’s replacement), also reduced to nothing more than a 51-vote-threshold.

Read more here.

GOP American Healthcare Plan

Today is the day. The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote this afternoon on phase one of the GOP American Healthcare Plan. Sundance at The Conservative Treehouse provides us with the three-step plan above, and gives us an excellent analysis of the complicated procedures involved.

Slipping across our porous border five times

Bob Price reports at Breitbart about Tommy Vladim Alvarado-Ventura.

Above is Tommy's mugshot from the Nassau County Jail in New York. He is an

MS-13 gang member from El Salvador is facing a possible life sentence after allegedly raping a 2-year-old girl, stabbing her mother, and stabbing another woman.

The incident reportedly began when Alvarado-Ventura got into an argument with a woman over a marijuana deal. The argument spilled over into the parking lot where he allegedly stabbed her. She suffered a collapsed lung. Officials have not released her name.

After stabbing the woman, the MS-13 gang member returned to an apartment where the two-year-old girl lived with her mother. The mother was at work at the time, acting Nassau County Police Commissioner Thomas Krumpter told reporters.

At that point, he allegedly sexually assaulted the little girl before the mother returned home. When she arrived at the apartment and discovered her daughter’s condition, an argument broke out, and Alvarado-Ventura stabbed her. She managed to barricade herself in another part of the apartment and called the police for help.

Doctors examined the two-year-old little girl and confirmed she had been sexually assaulted.

Officials stated that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers deported Alvarado-Ventura to his home country of El Salvador four times over a five-year period ending in 2011. There is no record of when he returned to the U.S. following his fourth deportation.

His criminal history includes charges of drunk driving, assault, false impersonation, and contempt of court.

He now faces charges of predatory sexual assault of a child, attempted murder, assault, and criminal possession of a weapon, officials reported.

Read more here.

When you are the subject of a fake news story

Scott Adams reports on a fake news story on him by Bloomberg. He explained

sixteen intentionally-biased or incorrect components in one story.

By the way, Bloomberg did have a third-party do fact-checking on the article by running a bunch of questions by me for verification. That is standard practice for the big publications. None of the things I mentioned here were in the fact checking. The fact-checkers don’t check the writer’s own eye-witness accounts for accuracy, and they don’t check for missing context.

When normal citizens read the news, they think it is mostly accurate. But when you are the subject of reporting, you can see the fake news all over it. I thought I would share this view with you so you can increase your skepticism when you see this sort of thing presented as truth.

Read more here.

A city now punctured by fear

At MailOnline, Katie Hopkins writes about terror in London.

They stood in the centre of Brussels. Row on row.
Hands held high, making hearts to the heavens. Showing the slaughtered they were not forgotten. Reminding themselves they were here with love. Looking to show humanity wins. That love conquers all.
They lay in the centre of London, face down where they fell. Stabbed by a knife, rammed with a car, flung, broken, into the Thames, life bleeding out on the curb.
And the news came thick and fast.

A car rammed deliberately into pedestrians on the bridge. Ten innocents down.
A police officer stabbed at the House of Commons. Confirmed dead.
Another woman now, dead at the scene.
Shots fired. An Asian man rushed to hospital.

A woman, plucked from the water.
And I grew colder. And more tiny.
No anger for me this time. No rage like I’ve felt before. No desperate urge to get out there and scream at the idiots who refused to see this coming.
Not even a nod for the glib idiots who say this will not defeat us, that we will never be broken, that cowardice and terror will not get the better of Britain.
Because, as loyal as I am, as patriotic as I am, as much as my whole younger life was about joining the British military and fighting for my country — I fear we are broken.
Not because of this ghoulish spectacle outside our own Parliament. Not because of the lives rammed apart on the pavement, even as they thought about what was for tea. Or what train home they might make.

But because this is us now.
This is our country now.
This is what we have become.
To this, we have been reduced.
Because all the while those forgiving fools in Brussels stood with their stupid hands raised in hearts to the sky, another mischief was in the making. More death was in the pipeline.

As the last life-blood of a police officer ran out across the cobbles, the attacker was being stretchered away in an attempt to save his life.
London is a city so desperate to be seen as tolerant, no news of the injured was released. No clue about who was safe or not.
Liberals convince themselves multiculturalism works because we all die together, too.
An entire city of monkeys: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Blind. Deaf. And dumb.

Immersed in a seething pit of hatred, hidden in pockets of communities plagued by old animosities and ancient strife.
These people may have left their lands. But they have brought every tension, every conflict, every bit of fight here with them.
The Afghans hate the Somalias who loathe the Eritreans. As it was before, it is now. London is a city of ghettos behind a thin veneer of civility kept polished by a Muslim mayor whose greatest validation is his father's old job.
Son-of-a-bus-driver Sadiq.
I see him now, penning a missive about how London is a beautiful and tolerant city, how we are united by shared values and understanding, and how we will not be cowed by terror.

Even as mothers text to check their children are safe. Including my own, worrying about me as I sit overlooking the scene, feeling fearful of this place where monsters lurk and steal lives away in an instant. For nothing.
I would ask Sadiq to stop talking. Empty words. Meanwhile, banning pictures of women in bikinis on the Underground. How does that help?
Please, no hashtag, no vigil, no tea lights. I am begging you not to light up Parliament in the colours of the Union.
Because we are not united. We are wrenched asunder.
The patriots of the rest of England versus the liberals in this city. The endless tolerance to those who harm us, (while the Home Office tries to shift the focus of public fear to white terror) — versus the millions like me who face the truth, with worried families and hopeless hearts, who feel the country sinking.

We are taken under the cold water by this heavy right foot in the south, a city of lead, so desperately wedded to the multicultural illusion that it can only fight those who love the country the most, blame those who are most proud to be British, and shout racist at the 52%.

This place is just like Sweden. Terrified of admitting the truth about the threat we face, about the horrors committed by the migrants we failed to deter — because to admit that we are sinking, and fast, would be to admit that everything the liberals believe is wrong.
That multiculturalism has not worked. That it is one big fat failure and one big fat lie.
President Erdogan of Turkey said there is a war being waged between the crescent and the cross. But he is wrong. Because the cross is not strong. We are down on bended knee, a doormat to be trodden on, a joke only funny to those that wish us harm.
The war is between London and the rest of the country. Between the liberals and the right-minded. Between those who think it is more important to tip-toe around the cultures of those who choose to join us, rather than defend our own culture.

How many more times?
And how many more attacks must pass before we acknowledge these are no longer the acts of ‘extremists’? That there is no safe badge with which to hold these people at arm’s length, in the way the liberals casually use the term 'far-right' for anyone who has National pride.
These events are no longer extreme. They are commonplace. Every day occurrences.

These people are no longer extremists. They are simply more devout. More true to their beliefs. Beliefs which will be supported endlessly across our state broadcaster for the next few months until we buy into the narrative that one religion is not to blame.
That in fact we should blame Brexit supporters. For believing in a Britain. As it was before.
Anything but the truth.
This is why there is no anger from me this time, no rage. No nod for those who pretend we will not be cowed, even as they rush home to text their mum they are safe. No surprise that the city of which I was so proud is now punctured by fear, and demarcated even more formally by places we cannot tread; there were always parts in which a white woman could not safely walk.

Now I feel only sadness, overwhelming sadness.
I will walk over the river tonight and look to the Thames, to the Union flag lowered at half mast, and the Parliament below, and I will wonder, just how much longer we can go on like this.

Who are the victims?

Bookworm has some things to say about the illegal alien rapists in Maryland, and the sociopaths in that state's school system and legislature

Since you all are hungry for news and keep abreast of things, you already know about the two young men who, despite being 17 and 18, and despite being manifestly in this country illegally, got enrolled as freshman at Rockville High School in Maryland. And you know that they dragged a 14-year-old girl into the restroom and brutally raped her. You may also know that the MSM has assiduously ignored this story, which doesn’t fit with the narrative of “illegal aliens as victims.” (I’m tired of calling them “immigrants.” It implies a legitimate journey to a new world. They’re aliens here.)

But did you know that the school superintendent for the Rockville High School district responded to the incident by defending allowing illegal immigrants into Maryland schools? That is, he defended allowing people who waltzed into this country on their own recognizance, without any government oversight, to just walk into an American high school.

Were he not so wrapped up in his cloud of Leftist self-righteousness, the superintendent might have noticed something that Ann Coulter had the bravery to call out, which is that people who come from backward agrarian societies have a propensity to commit child rape. They’re not as bad as those Muslims who accept the Imam’s dictums that all females are rape-worthy if they’re not locked away or outfitted in tents, but they’re more likely to do it than the average American. (And no, I’m not calling all illegal aliens rapists. But I am saying they have a cultural propensity and I’m not backing down from that fact.) As someone said, we shouldn’t be inviting people into our country who have to be taught after they arrive not to rape.

To me, that superintendent is a sociopath, putting his selfish emotional need for virtue signaling ahead of the needs of America’s children. He’s not the only one, though.

The entire Maryland legislature seems to be a haven for sociopaths. In the wake of the rape, the legislature passed a bill announcing that it is now a sanctuary state. I hope that Trump moves hard and fast to defund every single sanctuary city, state, or county in America. He’s already waited too long in my humble estimation.

Schumer's announcement

Bookworm is thinking about sociopaths today. Is Chuck Schumer a sociopath?

Honestly, after reading that Schumer announced that the Dems will filibuster Gorsuch, I don’t know if Schumer is an idiot or a sociopath with a grand game plan. It strikes me as insane for the Democrats to filibuster Gorsuch.

In a logical world, the filibuster triggers the nuclear option doing away with the filibuster entirely for Supreme Court nominees. It creates the risk that, if a certain hard-Left, very aged Supreme Court justice whom I shan’t name leaves the Court, a simple majority vote will get the most conservative judge in the world onto the Supreme Court. After all, the filibuster benefits conservatives more than Leftists, because Leftist always get on the Supreme Court.

One theory is that the Dems know the filibuster is dead anyway, so they need to grandstand today to pacify their rabid base. Another, more Machiavellian theory is that Blue state Dems will start a short and meaningless filibuster, while explicitly authorizing Red state Dems to vote for Gorsuch. That way, there’s no reason to blow-up the filibuster rule, but the Dems can still say to their base “at least we tried.” In that case, Schumer is a sociopath, not an idiot, because that would be quite a clever, albeit unprincipled approach.

Read more here.

CNN's partisanship

Another post by Ace of Spades today takes a look at

A New Low for the Partisan Fanatics at CNN.

...Odd how CNN comes together as a single mind to declare Nunes' claims as "too speculative" and not sufficiently backed by evidence which is disclosed and open to examination, while at the same time they essentially make up reasons to re-re-report the same unevidenced "suspicions" their Obama loyalist sources feed to them.

And note that none of this is new at all -- this is the same bullshit they've been feeding us for months. CNN's goal here is not to break new news but to maintain political pressure by simply re-re-reporting that which has been reported to death. The Democrats have an agenda item -- they are campaigning for a special prosecutor or special investigative committee which will have free reign to go on a fishing expedition on Trump for four or eight years -- and CNN is an important political operative in agitating for that scheme.

Meanwhile, where is CNN on the question of whether Nunes' charges similarly require constant re-reportage and their own special prosecutor who can go on a fishing expedition against Obama loyalists for two or eight years?

Nah, no need for that -- there is insufficient evidence for that sort of thing.

But for Trump -- we need that, stat. Also based on no evidence.

But CNN thinks its Obama loyalist sources are super-swell guys and Big Patriots and you should too!

Read more here.

Why I like Ace of Spades

Here are some paragraphs Ace wrote today.

...society has unduly valorized victimhood, making it very easy to become special through the very easy expedient of claiming someone said something mean to you. Not only does this encourage victimhood hoaxing -- people are economical and seek the shortest and easiest path to anything, including attention and social value -- but it discourages the older, much harder methods by which people claimed social value, namely, stupid things as Old As the Constitution like working hard, achieving things due to effort and risk, cultivating virtue instead of just advertising fake virtue

...Why does a white racist killer somehow create an obligation in me to examine how my own internalized "white supremacy" might be part and parcel of the attack, whereas the terrorism committed by an Islamist is definitely not cause for any self-reflection within the Muslim community about how their own hatreds and ideas of Islamic Supremacy might have something to do with the latest jihadi rampage?

Why the two standards, media?

And why are the standards becoming even more divergent -- why is it now considered journalistically unethical to even report that a jihadist attack was carried out by a jihadist, or that a rape by an illegal immigrant of a 14-year-old girl even happened at all?

Fake News isn't just the made-up news CNN cranks out daily -- it's the real news it refuses to mention.

...The story of the JCC bomb threats had Profound Political and Cultural Implication when it was assumed by the media to be the work of someone from the other party. Literally, from the Party of The Others, the Otherized, the Strangers, the Foreign Invaders.

Now that we find the caller was calling from inside the house of progressivism, there's simply no story here at all.

Read more here.

Trump completely vindicated

At The Daily Wire, John Nolte reports,

Trump was 100% correct about Obama "tapping his wires." Incidentally or not, his wires were tapped, and then the surveillance was intentionally made not-so incidental through the illegal act of unmasking, disseminating, and worst of all, the horrific act of leaking classified information to the media for purely partisan purposes.

And according to no less than CNN, it was Trump's transition team that was "picked up," and where was his transition team?

...Not for a moment do I believe the Obama administration "inadvertently" or "incidentally captured" Team Trump communications.

What? -- and then they "inadvertently" (and illegally) "unmasked" the Trump staffer not named on the surveillance warrant; and then "inadvertently" disseminated information (that had nothing to do with Russia) throughout the intelligence community; and then "inadvertently" leaked to the media information coming from Trump's transition team, information that included communications about Trump's own family, and almost certainly included game-planning the first 100 days?

I don't believe that anymore than I believe the IRS "inadvertently swept up" conservative groups for crippling, Kafka-esque persecution while Hail Satan high school clubs sailed through the same tax-exempt process.

Let's not be stupid.

3. Obama's Creepy History of Manipulating the FISA System

In order to spy on James Rosen of Fox News, Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder named him as a criminal co-conspirator and, quite incredibly, a flight risk. This gave the Obama administration "legal" access not only to Rosen's emails but Rosen's parents' phone records.

According to numerous media reports, going back to last summer, the Obama administration applied for a warrant to "monitor" members of Trump's team. They were turned down. In October, however, while the election was still on (another claim of Trump's was that the spying occurred during the election), a surveillance warrant was granted.

Another trick the Obama Administration could have played was to ask for surveillance warrants of those who they believed Team Trump might be speaking with. Using this end-run, they could then still monitor Trump and enjoy "plausible deniability" when the truth was revealed.

Regardless of how it was collected, once Team Trump communications were "unmasked" and disseminated, that is when the illegal spying began. The leaks to the public through the media (which was almost certainly done by Obama appointees and partisans) are just icing on the felonious cake.

4. This Was Political Spying; This Was a Successful Watergate Bugging

The whole point behind the Watergate break-in was to bug the headquarters of the Democrat National Committee simply for the sake of political advantage -- to find out what the other side was up to.

That is exactly what happened here, and there is little doubt in my mind that was the Obama administration's intent all along, especially after Trump won, which would explain why the bulk of the spying appears to have occurred during the transition.

5. The National Media Knew All of This and Covered It Up

who do you think most benefited from all of this surveillance intel?

Of course it was the media. They are the ones who got the intel, reported it out (unnamed sources), including transcripts of phone calls that could have only come from -- wait for it, wait for it -- wiretaps!

Nolte gives specific information of specific media stories here.

6. Devin Nunes Handled This Exactly Right

7. CNN Is a Deep State Propaganda Arm

8. The F.B.I. Investigation Into RussiaGate Is Now Tainted

If Nunes is correct, we'll know more on Friday, then it appears as though the F.B.I. director lied about the Trump surveillance. At best, he was highly and intentionally deceptive.

We are also being told that the F.B.I. is now refusing to cooperate in this matter.

When you combine this with the Nothingburger CNN leak that likely came from the F.B.I. last night, there is no question the entire F.B.I. is politicized, which means its entire investigation into RussiGate is already compromised.

Read more here.