Sunday, December 31, 2017
Chuck E. Cheese with a Rose Garden
It is time for Dave Barry's look back at the year that is about to end in about five hours. I will excerpt the parts I liked best. January:
May:
June:
July:
August:
September:
October:
November:
December:
...the big emerging journalism story is the Russians, who, according to many unnamed sources, messed with the election. Nobody seems to know how, specifically, the Russians affected the election, but everybody is pretty sure they did something, especially CNN, which has not been so excited about a story since those heady months in 2014 when it provided 24/7 video coverage of random objects floating in the Pacific while panels of experts speculated on whether these objects might or might not have anything to do with that missing Malaysian airliner. You can tune into CNN anytime, day or night, and you are virtually guaranteed to hear the word “Russians” within 10 seconds, even if it’s during a Depends commercial.
May:
In other political developments, Greg Gianforte, a Republican running for Montana’s vacant congressional seat, gets national headlines when he body-slams a reporter for the Guardian newspaper. He is immediately hired as Director of Customer Relations by United Airlines.
No, seriously, despite being charged with assault, Gianforte wins easily, yet another indication that in much of the nation journalists enjoy the same level of popularity as head lice.
In international news, Trump attends the G7 summit in Sicily, where a major agenda item is climate change, which the president has stated — and Fox News has confirmed — is a HOAX. The summit ends in disappointment when the heads of state of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom inform Trump that he cannot legally fire them.
June:
In international news, the United Nations Security Council, in its strongest response yet to continued North Korean missile tests, unanimously passes a resolution threatening to suspend Kim Jong Un’s Netflix account.
Amazon, aka the Death Star of Retail, becomes even larger and more powerful when it announces plans to buy Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, or enough money to buy nearly four pounds of top sirloin at current Whole Foods prices.
Facebook announces that it has reached a total of two billion users, who in 2017 alone have already posted a total of 17 trillion impassioned statements of their political views, which have changed a total of zero minds.
July:
In other news, Trump’s appointment of Anthony Scaramucci as communications director triggers the resignation of press secretary Sean Spicer, followed by the departure of chief of staff Reince Priebus, whom Trump replaces with John Kelly, who immediately fires … Anthony Scaramucci! These events reinforce the growing perception that, in terms of managerial sophistication, the Trump White House is basically a Chuck E. Cheese with a Rose Garden.
As the month ends, the Nevada Parole Board grants parole to O.J. Simpson, who will be released from prison in October, at which time he will join the Customer Compliance Division of United Airlines.
August:
With emotions running high in the wake of Charlottesville, ESPN executives decide to pull announcer Robert Lee off the broadcast of the University of Virginia football game, out of concern that his name might be disturbing to those viewers who are as stupid as ESPN executives.
In other protest news, police in Berkeley, California, battle anti-fascist activists, or “antifa,” who fight fascism by violently assaulting anybody who might do or say or think something the “antifa” deem unacceptable.
In a welcome diversion toward the end of this tumultuous month, Americans are treated to a rare celestial display as the sun is totally eclipsed by a 2,000-mile-wide Amazon logo. Fox News declares it to be “the greatest eclipse of any presidential administration ever,” although CNN reports that, according to its sources, there have been “suspiciously similar” eclipses in Russia.
September:
Speaking of excitement, Hillary Clinton, responding to the insatiable public appetite for reliving the 2016 election over and over and over, comes out with her new tell-all book titled “You Idiots,” in which she candidly reveals that she was in fact a superb candidate and charming human who totally would have won the presidency had it not been for — among many other unfair obstacles that were unfairly placed in her path — James Comey, the Russians, the so-called “Electoral College,” Bernie Sanders, the Democratic National Committee, Anthony Weiner, sexism, Barack Obama, the media, her incompetent campaign staff and the frankly unacceptable stupidity of the American public. Next stop: 2020!
October:
Facebook executives, testifying before a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, confirm that at least 60 percent of the people you friended because you thought they went to high school with you are in fact Russians.
Meanwhile a major scandal engulfs the entertainment world when The New York Times reveals that powerful movie producer Harvey Weinstein, despite being a prominent supporter of all the correct causes, basically spent the past several decades lumbering around in an open bathrobe forcing himself on unreceptive women. This news comes as a big shock to members of the Hollywood community, especially coming on the heels of their recent discovery that the pope is Catholic.
November:
President Trump goes on a 12-day trip to Asia, which is a very, very important continent containing a tremendous number of Asians. The trip is a huge success featuring many tremendous meals. The highlight takes place in Beijing, a very important city in China, where the president signs a very, very major trade deal worth $250 billion, under which the United States will receive, among other things, a shipping container filled with four tons of Gucci purses that according to Chinese President Xi Jinping — an absolutely terrific guy — are “100 percent legit.”
December:
… congressional Republicans finally manage to pass tax legislation, which in its final form is expected to be approximately the same length as “War and Peace” in the original Russian but less intelligible to the average American taxpayer. The consensus of expert media commentators is that the legislation will reduce taxes for the middle class, increase taxes for the middle class, stimulate the economy, destroy the economy, make America great again, and LITERALLY KILL MILLIONS OF PEOPLE.Read more here.
(Expert media commentators are the reason that much of the American public has decided to get its information on current events from memes.)
We are of course joking. By all indications the nation is going to spend 2018 the same way it spent 2017, namely obsessing spitefully over 2016. So the best we can do is enjoy the brief reprieve offered by the holidays. In the spirit of the season, let’s try, as a nation, to forget about our differences, at least for a few days. Let’s remember that we’re all Americans, and let’s give our friends and loved ones, whatever their political views, a big old holiday hug.
No, scratch that. No hugging! Give your friends and loved ones a formal holiday handshake, then back away slowly with your hands raised in plain view.
Has our move toward a banana republic been scotched?
Clarice Feldman writes at American Thinker,
... as Scott Adams notes, the president has demolished the GOP and reconstituted it; the DNC lacks a leader and funds; the Clinton and Bush dynasties are over; the public has learned to distrust the media; the NFL ratings are down; the FBI leadership has lost all credibility, as have the pundits, nearly all of whom "were wrong about Trump's nomination, election, and successful (by Republican standards) first year"; federal government regulations are far fewer; Hollywood has alienated almost half its audience; North Korea's economy has gone from pathetic to even worse; ISIS has been largely defeated; and we bade adieu to the Paris Accord and the TPP.Read much more here.
As for the economy, the stock market is up, employment is up, and the upper Midwest economy is growing its fastest in three years.
I don't think any president in my memory has had such a consequential first year, and certainly none had the pathetic dossier and corrupt FBI and DOJ officials to contend with at the same time.
Infrastructure next?
A trillion dollars in infrastructure? Manhattan Contrarian reminds us here that if New York is any example, we could spend it all and have little to show for it.
Invigorating basketball!
Game time temperature was 35 degrees, but it was a really fun New Year's Eve basketball game with Mom, Dad, and daughter giving two teenage boys all they could handle (before losing to them 21 to 15).
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
Trump and the desperate partisans in the media
Don Surber writes,
The power of the Trump is known -- and it extends far beyond his constitutional powers as chief executive of the greatest land of all.Read more here.
He showed it yesterday by tweeting, "Many reports of peaceful protests by Iranian citizens fed up with regime’s corruption and its squandering of the nation’s wealth to fund terrorism abroad. Iranian govt should respect their people’s rights, including right to express themselves. The world is watching! #IranProtests"
In one tweet, President Trump forced the media to report protests that the media wanted to ignore.
Those protests likely will fail without pressure from Arab and Muslim governments. Nevertheless, it is news.
...After more than a year of million-dollar investigations there is not one scintilla of evidence of collusion.
Which is why Trump keeps talking about it, because the Russian story makes the press look like desperate partisans rather than competent referees.
But what else do they have?
The press gambled all its credibility on Hillary last year.
Now they have borrowed money to buy lottery tickets hoping to win it back.
Wise people would have gone back to the basics last year, played it straight, and given Donald Trump a chance.
Reading these accounts -- these desperate attempts to revive an industry -- saddens me. It's not what was that is the tragedy; it is what might have been.
Russia and China companies selling oil to North Korea, but South Korea intercepts
Sundance reports that an oil tanker flying the flag of Panama has been intercepted by South Korea headed for North Korea.
Reuters reports from Seoul,
Rick Moran reports at PJ Media, Russia is also selling oil to North Korea in violation of UN sanctions.
Many readers might remember back in the summer 2017 (throughout July) when there were indications that President Trump, and allies, were positioning assets and drills for what appeared to be a strategic naval blockade. Well, today Reuters is reporting that South Korea has seized a second oil tanker, flagged under Panama, headed to North Korea.
The cost of smuggling oil into North Korea is getting very high. These oil tankers are very expensive and the cost of commerce in international ocean freight is underwritten by massive global insurance companies. Each of these interdictions’ makes the business end of smuggling much more unstable. Additionally, each of these violations opens up the co-dependent enabler as a target for massive U.S. Treasury Sanctions previously established.
Reuters reports from Seoul,
South Korean authorities have seized a Panama-flagged vessel suspected of transferring oil products to North Korea in violation of international sanctions, a customs official said on Sunday.
The seizure was the second to be revealed by South Korea within a few days, as the United Nations steps up efforts to squeeze essential oil supplies to the reclusive North following its nuclear or ballistic missile tests.
The ship can carry 5,100 tonnes of oil and has a crew mostly from China and Myanmar, Yonhap News Agency reported, adding that South Korea’s intelligence and customs officials are conducting a joint probe into the vessel.
Rick Moran reports at PJ Media, Russia is also selling oil to North Korea in violation of UN sanctions.
A few days ago, it was revealed by U.S. intelligence that China was selling oil to North Korea via ship-to-ship transfers. Now Reuters is reporting that Western intelligence sources are claiming Russia is also selling oil to the Kim regime in violation of UN Security Council sanctions.Read more here.
Standing tall and proud in defiance...
At Ace of Spades, CBD writes,
2017 is going out with a bang...Global Warming is currently freezing the snot out of the Northeast and, for that matter, much of the rest of the country. The people of Iran are hinting that maybe, just maybe, they are tired of almost 40 years of a repressive dictatorship and are ready for something different. America's deep state is pulling out all of the stops in its attempt to destroy a legally elected president, and he is standing tall and proud in defiance, laughing in their faces, and is systematically dismantling the power structures that they have so carefully built since the Wilson administration. The "Palestinians" have just been very publicly punched in the nose by the United States of America, and the only people to come to their aid have been the neutered apparatchiks of the UN. The U.S. economy is doing well, and looks to do even better. Perhaps it isn't "Morning in America," but it sure does look brighter.
Saturday, December 30, 2017
Trump at the UN
The entire world understands that the good people of Iran want change, and, other than the vast military power of the United States, that Iran’s people are what their leaders fear the most...The entire world understands that the good people of Iran want change, and, other than the vast military power of the United States, that Iran’s people are what their leaders fear the most.... pic.twitter.com/W8rKN9B6RT
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2017
Twitter tidbits
President Trump tweeted,
Diane Biegel tweeted,
Jack Posobiec tweeted, Iranian girl takes off her scarf to protest forced hijab laws
Has CNN shown this?
Scott Adams tweeted,
Why is the United States Post Office, which is losing many billions of dollars a year, while charging Amazon and others so little to deliver their packages, making Amazon richer and the Post Office dumber and poorer? 'Should be charging MUCH MORE!'
Diane Biegel tweeted,
If you’re less than 55 years old, pls Google Iran 1970s. Women were educated and dressed as westerners.
Jack Posobiec tweeted, Iranian girl takes off her scarf to protest forced hijab laws
Has CNN shown this?
Iranian girl takes off her scarf to protest forced hijab laws
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) December 30, 2017
Has CNN shown this? pic.twitter.com/ZC9ZTim2c5
Scott Adams tweeted,
Two things will make a totalitarian regime collapse in the long run: 1) Allowing full Internet access to its young people, and 2) Preventing its young people from having full Internet access.
The protests in Iran
Lee Smith writes at Tablet Magazine,
...So why aren’t the protests in Iran making headlines?Read more here.
The short answer is that the American media is incapable of covering the story, because its resources and available story-lines for Iran reporting and expertise were shaped by two powerful official forces—the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the Obama White House. Without government minders providing them with story-lines and experts, American reporters are simply lost—and it shows.
...If the people who donned pink pussy hats to resist Donald Trump are one of the year’s big stories, surely people who are shot dead in the streets in Iran for resisting an actual murderous theocracy might also be deserving of a shout-out for their bravery.
...Selling the protesters short is a mistake. For 38 years Iranian crowds have been gathered by regime minders to chant “Death to America, Death to Israel.” When their chant spontaneously changes to “Down with Hezbollah” and “Death to the Dictator” as it has now, something big is happening.
...The (New York) Times, as Tablet colleague James Kirchik reported for Foreign Policy in 2015, runs a travel business that sends Western tourists to Iran. “Travels to Persia,” the Times calls it. If you’re cynical, you probably believe that the Times has an interest in the protests subsiding and the regime surviving—because, after all, anyone can package tours to Paris or Rome.
...The current media landscape was shaped by years of an Obama administration that made the nuclear deal its second-term priority. Talking points on Iran were fed to reporters by the White House—and those who veered outside government-approved lines could expect to be cut off by the administration’s ace press handlers, like active CIA officer Ned Price.
Americans were systematically bombarded by craven regime “talking points” on mainstream and elite media throughout the Obama presidency—because the president had his eye on making a historic deal with Iran that would secure his “legacy.”
...Of course it’s difficult to understand what’s happening in Iran now—the Obama White House and the press sidelined anyone who was not on board with the president’s main political goal. To sell the public on the Iran Deal, the Obama administration promoted hack “reporters” and “experts” who would peddle its fairy-tale story-lines, while setting social media mobs on whoever was brave or stupid or naïve or well-informed enough to cast doubt on its cock-eyed picture of Iran—including independent reporters like David Sanger of the Times, as well as the president’s entire first-term foreign policy cabinet.
The current coverage of the protests sweeping across Iran is bad by design. The Obama administration used the press to mislead the American public in order to win the president’s signature foreign policy initiative. The bill for that program of systematic misinformation is still coming in, and the price is much higher than anyone could have imagined, including more than 500,000 dead in Syria and an American press incapable of understanding, never mind reporting, that this death toll was part of Obama’s quid pro quo for the nuclear deal.
And what was gained? America enriched and strengthened a soon-to-be nuclear regime that murders its neighbors abroad while torturing, oppressing, and impoverishing its own citizens. Whether the current wave of protests is successful or not, they show that the Iranian people are heartily sick of the regime that Obama and his servants spent eight years of his Presidency praising and propping up.
Greetings little people of America!
Greetings little people of America!
Did you know that the Democratic Party shares your values? To prove it, the satirical blog Manhattan Infidel gave his platform to Nancy Pelosi to give a New Year address to the people of America. Some of the topics she covered were taxes, science, religion, the military, and more here.
Favoring Main Street over Wall Street
The Associated Press reports that
Goldman Sachs expects to take a $5 billion hit to profits for the fourth quarter and year because of the tax overhaul signed into law last week.Read more about how Trump's team favors Main Street over Wall Street here.
The New York bank on Friday became one of the first to release details on how changes in the tax code will affect how money parked overseas is handled.
Iranian authorities cut off internet to Iranian citizens.
Ali Noorani and Eric Randolph report in Yahoo that Iranian authorities have cut off internet access to Iranian citizens. Read more here.
Protests in Iran
Today were the long-scheduled events in which supporters of the Iranian regime took to the streets. But the people who are anti-regime and who have been protesting all week all across Iran did not stop today. Even the Lefties at the AP recognize that! Amir Vahdat and Jon Gambrell report,
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A wave of spontaneous protests over Iran’s weak economy swept into Tehran on Saturday, with college students and others chanting against the government just hours after hard-liners held their own rally in support of the Islamic Republic’s clerical establishment.
The demonstrations appear to be the largest to strike the Islamic Republic since the protests that followed the country’s disputed 2009 presidential election.
Thousands already have taken to the streets of cities across Iran, beginning at first on Thursday in Mashhad, the country’s second-largest city and a holy site for Shiite pilgrims.
The protests in the Iranian capital, as well as U.S. President Donald Trump tweeting about them, raised the stakes. It also apparently forced state television to break its silence, acknowledging it hadn’t reported on them on orders from security officials.
Read more here.
Trump tweeted out support for the protests Saturday.
“The entire world understands that the good people of Iran want change, and, other than the vast military power of the United States, that Iran’s people are what their leaders fear the most....” he tweeted. “Oppressive regimes cannot endure forever, and the day will come when the Iranian people will face a choice. The world is watching!”
Can we make a dent in the corruption?
More from the amazing Sundance at The Conservative Treehouse: 
Read more here.
Let us spend some productive time actually thinking about the processes of how to eliminate the entrenched tentacles of the corrupt deep state, specifically surrounding the politicization of the FBI and Dept of Justice, with a reasonable amount of intellectual honesty toward the scale of the endeavor.
It is entirely understandable that people are frustrated because the administrative agents within the Deep State apparatus appear to operate in a system, of their creation, that allows them to operate above the rule of law. Righteous voices rising up in frustration demanding action; wholesale destruction of those usurping agents with extreme prejudice.
...If you spend time looking at the scale and scope, I mean honestly looking at how deeply enmeshed those ideological entities are within the system, you would also have to admit the problem is not just a matter of eliminating a few dozen DOJ lawyers and FBI agents. The issue is much bigger. Example:
•Congressional investigators ask for documents. •The current management of the FBI and DOJ refuse to turn over those documents. •Frustration explodes.
However, it is important to remember the House and Senate Judiciary and Intelligence Committees contain both Democrats and Republicans. Any investigative information released to any congressional committee immediately becomes information for corrupt political operatives (Example: Adam Schiff) to share with their corrupt ideological allies inside the FBI and DOJ who are at risk from the investigative material.
Those corrupt FBI and DOJ officials are then tipped-off to the evidence that might be used against them. The corrupt political operatives within Congress, and the corrupt political agents inside the FBI and DOJ, then have the opportunity to shape, modify and organize the information for their corrupt political operatives in the media.
...The FBI was politicized and corrupted (Obama/Mueller/Comey).
The DOJ was politicized and corrupted (Obama/Holder/Lynch).
The CIA was politicized and corrupted (Obama/Brennan/Morell).
The ODNI was politicized and corrupted (Obama/Clapper).
The FBI counterintelligence units were politicized and corrupted (Comey/McCabe/Baker/Priestap/Strzok/Page).
The DOJ National Security Division was politicized and corrupted (Lynch/Yates/Carlin/McCord/Laufman/Evans/Weigman/Ohr); along with all of their colleagues, staff and support teams who willfully participated in the corruption.
The oversight committees inside congress are politicized and corrupted by ideological politicians who act to defend the interests of all the above.
Heck, the IRS was weaponized against American citizens; and by their own admission the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) was politicized and corrupted by the fraudulent and misleading information presented by the highest level FBI and DOJ officials – and then later used for political benefit and unlawful intention.
...The key to defeating all the professional swamp-dwellers is to: first, accept the scale of who your enemy is; and second, have all the prosecutorial systems strategically in place prior to the release of the most damning evidence against them. Any evidence released too soon allows the slippery usurpers to formulate a defense.
Read more here.
The National Security Division of the Department of Justice: Why is no one allowed to investigate it?
At The Conservative Treehouse, Sundance writes in great detail about who were the players in the Russian dossier. Here are just a few excerpts from his highly detailed exploration of events.
...[More from the Tablet] Simpson and Jacoby had ID’d Manafort as a world-class sleazeball and they were right. A slick Georgetown Law grad running in GOP circles since the Reagan campaign, Manafort used his talents and connections to get paid by some very bad people. I would only add here that, in my personal experience, journalists are not in the habit of forgetting major stories they’ve written, especially stories with a character like Manafort at the center.
So when the Trump campaign named Paul Manafort as its campaign convention manager on March 28, 2016, you can bet that Simpson and Jacoby’s eyes lit up. And as it happened, at the exact same time that Trump hired Manafort, Fusion GPS was in negotiations with Perkins Coie, the law firm representing the Clinton campaign and the DNC, to see if there was interest in the firm continuing the opposition research on the Trump campaign they had started for the Washington Free Beacon. (more)
Sundance continues,
Read more here, including over 800 comments already today!
...2016 April: Mary Jacoby, wife of Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson, visits the White House. The Clinton Campaign and DNC then hire Fusion GPS to conduct ‘Opposition Research’, with a Russian emphasis. Fusion GPS then hires Nellie Ohr who specializes in Russian-centric counterintelligence. Nellie Ohr then contacts MI6 agent Christopher Steele to write a Russian Dossier. A month later, May 2016: Nellie Ohr’s husband inside the DOJ, Bruce Ohr, is then working with FBI counterintelligence head Peter Strzok. By June 2016: Peter Strzok, Bruce Ohr and DOJ Attorney Lisa Page then apply for the first FISA warrant.
[June 24th, 2017, Mary Jacoby appears on Facebook taking credit for the origination of the Russiagate narrative.]
This timeline is so transparent it’s deafening.
...[More from the Tablet] Simpson and Jacoby had ID’d Manafort as a world-class sleazeball and they were right. A slick Georgetown Law grad running in GOP circles since the Reagan campaign, Manafort used his talents and connections to get paid by some very bad people. I would only add here that, in my personal experience, journalists are not in the habit of forgetting major stories they’ve written, especially stories with a character like Manafort at the center.
So when the Trump campaign named Paul Manafort as its campaign convention manager on March 28, 2016, you can bet that Simpson and Jacoby’s eyes lit up. And as it happened, at the exact same time that Trump hired Manafort, Fusion GPS was in negotiations with Perkins Coie, the law firm representing the Clinton campaign and the DNC, to see if there was interest in the firm continuing the opposition research on the Trump campaign they had started for the Washington Free Beacon. (more)
Sundance continues,
If the counterintelligence FISA warrant was obtained through deception, misleading/manipulated information, or fraud; and that warrant is what led to the wiretapping and surveillance of candidate Donald Trump and General Flynn; and that warrant was authorized by FISA Court Judge Contreras –who was the judge in Flynn’s case, and is now recused– the entire tenuous FBI and DOJ operation begins to collapse and the outline of a “conspiracy” becomes clearly evident.
The back-story to the FISA warrant is the cornerstone. The back-story contains both the FBI and the DOJ scheme. Expose it, remove it, and the entire ‘muh Russia’ conspiracy fraud collapses under the weight of sunlight.
♦The National Security Division (NSD) inside the DOJ was where all of the collaboration appears to have taken place. The NSD is a sub-division within the DOJ similar to the Counterintelligence Division within the FBI.
Using the National Security Division (NSD) inside the DOJ presents a specifically useful angle for the purposes of hiding duplicitous, unethical and unlawful conduct. Why? Well, here’s where the mirrored entry starts and also where it gets interesting.
...Responding to a 2015 request by the DOJ Office of Inspector General, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates told the internal watchdog they cannot investigate the National Security Division.
That’s right, there is essentially no oversight on any activity happening inside the NSD.
In 2015 the OIG requested oversight and it was Sally Yates who responded with a lengthy 58 page legal explanation saying, essentially, ‘nope – not allowed.’ (PDF HERE) All of the DOJ is subject to oversight, except the NSD.
The Department of Justice’s own Inspector General (currently Michael Horowitz who opened a January 2017 investigation into the 2016 politicization of the FBI and DOJ) is not allowed to investigate anything that happens within the NSD branch of the Department of Justice.
See the ‘useful arrangement‘?
Yeah, Funny that.
So it might not be so coincidental the players used on the DOJ side of “Operation Trump” all seem to come from within the National Security Division.
...The NSD admits the details how, under President Obama, the Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch Department of Justice used FISA applications to monitor political opponents, unmasked conversations to discover content, and also disclosed this has been happening for SIX YEARS prior to the beginning of the July 2016 joint FBI/DOJ “Trump Operation”.
Recapping September/October 2016: ♦Bruce Ohr and Peter Strzok are secretly meeting with Christopher Steele (Dossier) and Glenn Simpson (Fusion GPS). ♦The NSD is submitting a second FISA application to using the Steele Dossier. ♦The Justice Department National Security Division head announces his intention to leave the NSD. ♦And the DOJ-NSD inform the FISA Court they have weaponized prior FISA warrants for political operations.
Read more here, including over 800 comments already today!
Friday, December 29, 2017
Electrocution plan foiled
This Florida man tried to electrocute his pregnant wife. He is in jail now, and she is unharmed. Read his elaborate plan and view more photos here.
Engaged
Newt Gingrich writes,
Would you believe that during his first year as Commander in Chief, President Donald Trump hosted 43 world leaders at the White House. In total, he engaged or met with 149 world leaders in 2017. In 183 calls, the President spoke with leaders from 51 countries. Not exactly the lack of connectivity his critics expected a year ago.Read more here.
More coverage of Iranian protests
Here is the BBC coverage of the Iranian protests against the mullahs. The reports include cell phone videos from people in several Iranian cities.
Secretary Tillerson issues statement in support of Iranian political protestors
Secretary of State Tillerson issued the following statement in support of today's political protests in Iran:
We are following reports of multiple peaceful protests by Iranian citizens in cities across the country. Iran’s leaders have turned a wealthy country with a rich history and culture into an economically depleted rogue state whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed, and chaos. As President Trump has said, the longest-suffering victims of Iran’s leaders are Iran’s own people.read more here.
The United States strongly condemns the arrest of peaceful protesters. We urge all nations to publicly support the Iranian people and their demands for basic rights and an end to corruption.
On June 14, 2017, Secretary Tillerson testified to Congress that he supports “those elements inside of Iran that would lead to a peaceful transition of government. Those elements are there, certainly as we know.” The Secretary today repeats his deep support for the Iranian people.
Can anyone corroborate this story?
Ryan Hasman reports at ESPN News,
In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, (Lebron) James was asked about his beast-like brawn. He smirked and said, “It’s all thanks to my special vitamins”, while pulling a small bottle of pills out of his designer backpack. Little did LeBron know, that off-the-court play would be a defining moment of his career. When the interview was released, the headline indirectly accused LJ of using illegal substances. The author also said it’s impossible for a human to naturally put on 65 pounds of hard, lean muscle in just 18 months.I Googled "Is Lebron James on probation? No corroborating story came up. I think this whole story is an ad for these pills. Where did I see it? On Facebook, which is notorious for fake news stories. I looked for a date on the ESPN story. It does not give a date, but it has 2d, which I assume means it is two days old. No wonder both ESPN and Facebook have such bad reputations.
James held an emergency press conference to clear the air about his ‘Secret Weapon’ as he calls it. LeBron did admit that his pills have given him an unfair strength-advantage over his competitors. However, he says his magical supplement is not an illegal substance.
This mystery muscle builder is a supplement called Alpha Testosterone. It’s also known as Drug-Free Steroids. These little pills are a catalyst that burns fat and builds hard, lean muscle. And they are specially designed to take the average joe and give him superhuman strength and stamina.
When word got out, NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, requested an immediate meeting with LeBron and Dan Gilbert (owner of the Cavaliers). It’s not clear what exactly went on at the meeting, however what is known is: King James is officially on NBA probation until further notice. This is a crushing blow for Cleveland, who just won their first world title last year, and just lost to the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals.
The Five 12-29-17
President Trump gives a 30-minute unscheduled interview with the New York Times. He must be feeling very confident. Members of The Five have read the transcript, and apparently, there were some negative words about Attorney General Jeff Sessions coming from the President's lips.
Although she makes many good points, Kennedy talks too loudly! So does Marie Harf. Katie Pavlich does not, neither do the two guys on the panel. Katie corrects loudmouth Harf on the cost of energy. "The climate has been changing for a long, long time!"
Trump to Dems: No DACA funding unless there is funding for the wall!
The polar ice caps seem to be flourishing, despite Al Gore saying they would vanish by 2014.
Although she makes many good points, Kennedy talks too loudly! So does Marie Harf. Katie Pavlich does not, neither do the two guys on the panel. Katie corrects loudmouth Harf on the cost of energy. "The climate has been changing for a long, long time!"
Trump to Dems: No DACA funding unless there is funding for the wall!
The polar ice caps seem to be flourishing, despite Al Gore saying they would vanish by 2014.
Protests in Iran
Reuters reports that there were protests in many places in Iran today. Read more here.
Nunes appears to mean business!
In a scathing letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., wrote "Unfortunately, DOJ/FBI's intransigence with respect to the Aug. 24 subpoenas is part of a broader pattern of behavior that can no longer be tolerated." (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Naomi Lin reports at The Washington Examiner,
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes on Thursday slammed the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their "failure to fully produce" documents related to the Trump dossier, saying that DOJ and the FBI should investigate themselves.
“Unfortunately, DOJ/FBI's intransigence with respect to the Aug. 24 subpoenas is part of a broader pattern of behavior that can no longer be tolerated,” Nunes wrote in a scathing letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in which he complained about information and witnesses subpoenaed by his committee earlier in 2017.
“As a result of the numerous delays and discrepancies that have hampered the process of subpoena compliance, the committee no longer credits the representations made by DOJ and/or the FBI regarding these matters,” Nunes added in the letter obtained by Fox News.
Nunes demanded records and available dates for witnesses to testify be given to Congress by Jan. 3., threatening to introduce a contempt of Congress resolution if his request is not met.
The committee is seeking reports regarding meetings between the FBI and confidential human sources about the controversial dossier, as well as testimony from key DOJ and FBI officials.
Nunes also blasted the DOJ's response to the subpoenas as "disingenuous" because the department initially claimed the documents "did not exist."
“As it turns out, not only did documents exist that were directly responsive to the committee’s subpoenas, but they involved senior DOJ and FBI officials who were swiftly reassigned when their roles in matters under the committee’s investigation were brought to light,” Nunes said.
The House Intelligence Committee is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The dossier compiled by former M16 British spy Christopher Steele contains salacious and unverified allegations of misconduct and collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
Iran and Hezbollah in the Western Hemisphere
At The Center for Security Policy, Luis Fleischman writes,
The Obama Administration tried to avoid confrontations with anyone it wanted to make a “historic deal” with. Most of these “historic deals” were intended to be made with enemies, as Obama desperately sought an agreement not only with Iran but also with Cuba and reconciliation with Venezuela.Read more here.
Thus, Obama failed to insist on the extradition of Venezuelan military and drug trafficker Hugo Carvajal from Aruba and the Syrian-born Venezuelan drug lord Walid Makled from Colombia. Carvajal was the chief of Venezuelan military intelligence and Makled is one of the most notorious drug traffickers in the Western Hemisphere. Makled himself disclosed his own cooperation with scores of the highest officials within Chavez’s government — including Carvajal himself, with the chiefs of the Venezuelan army and navy, as well as with dozens of Venezuelan generals.
Makled also provided information about Hezbollah’s criminal activities and its relations with the Venezuelan political and military elite. Already in 2011, he claimed that Hezbollah was making considerable profits in the Western Hemisphere which was funneled to the Middle East. Makled also said that he was willing to tell this to American prosecutors and asked to be extradited to the United States. Still, Obama failed to apply pressure or make an effective request. Both Carvajal and Makled were returned to Venezuela by the Dutch and Colombian authorities respectively.
...For all the reasons cited above, I believe that the Politico report deserves a Congressional investigation. But most importantly it is crucial that the activities of Iran and Hezbollah in the Western Hemisphere be fully investigated and dismantled. Project Cassandra needs to be restored and carried out to its very end.
Does our national security team understand what we need to be doing in Iran?
No writer that I am aware of know Iran better than Michael Ledeen, who writes at Pajamas Media,
Barack Obama will no doubt be chronicled, among other things, as the first anti-American president. No wonder; he’s the product of an educational system that has become increasingly radical and anti-American with each passing decade, and his mother was a stereotypical leftist anthropologist with a passion for the Third World.
The pattern is unmistakable. As Luis Fleischman notes, Obama wanted to make deals with our enemies, Iran being the most dramatic example. But just look at Latin America:
The Obama Administration tried to avoid confrontations with anyone it wanted to make a “historic deal” with. Most of these “historic deals” were intended to be made with enemies, as Obama desperately sought an agreement not only with Iran, but also with Cuba and reconciliation with Venezuela.
Thus, Obama failed to insist on the extradition of Venezuelan military and drug trafficker Hugo Carvajal from Aruba and the Syrian-born Venezuelan drug lord Walid Makled from Colombia. Carvajal was the chief of Venezuelan military intelligence and Makled is one of the most notorious drug traffickers in the Western Hemisphere. Makled himself disclosed his own cooperation with scores of the highest officials within Chavez’s government -- including Carvajal himself, with the chiefs of the Venezuelan army and navy, as well as with dozens of Venezuelan generals.
The Obama people did not want to know the details of Venezuela’s collusion with the drug Mafiosi. If you have followed the story of the obstruction of the DEA investigation of Hezbollah, you will recognize the pattern. Indeed, it is part of the story.
It is also part of a bigger story: What is Trump going to do about Iran? The rhetoric on Iran is great. Inspirational, even. But as even “Mad Dog" Mattis says, there’s, well, more rhetoric, along with some sanctions:
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says Washington will deal with Iran through a "diplomatically-led effort," a day after a top U.S. diplomat said Tehran was supplying weapons to the Huthi rebels in Yemen.
So we still don’t have an Iran policy worthy of the name, despite the welcome clarity the Trump people have brought to the subject. “Everywhere you find turmoil,” Mattis said following our UN Ambassador Nikki Haley’s expose of Iran’s role in Yemen, “you find Iran’s hand in it.”
But then the secretary of Defense went on to embrace consciousness-raising.
Consciousness has long been suitably raised. There is no confusion about the nature of the Iranian regime or its intent to develop nuclear attack weapons or its savage repression of seventy-plus million people who would undoubtedly enter the ranks of the West if they could. But if we do not directly challenge the regime, no one else is going to do it.
Donald Trump is certainly the opposite of an anti-American president, and he has no affection for our enemies. He has enabled the Ukrainians to fight, perhaps effectively, against the Russians. So why can’t he enable the Iranians to fight against the ayatollahs?
In the Ukrainian case we’re talking about military weapons; in the Iranian conflict the weapons are political. If the Iranians rose up against the regime when Obama entered the White House, you can be sure they are at least equally motivated to do it with Trump in office. There are many protests in Iran today, and the Khamenei/Rouhani regime has responded by executing half as many Iranians as in the past. We should relentlessly expose this mass murder, and we should publicize the ongoing protests.
The target audience for such exposes is the great mass of the population. Paradoxically, Iranians are better informed about events in Jerusalem and Washington than in Iranian Kurdistan, the southern oil regions, and cities like Mashad and Qom.
All Iranians need this information, which shows them that they are not alone. The technology for such a campaign exists. It is the same as it was when we deployed it against the Soviet Union with such powerful consequences: our broadcasting network, starting with the Voice of America. Today, Farsi-language VOA is often a vehicle for anti-American polemics, since personnel is virtually unchanged from the Obama years. We need a thorough housecleaning, but there are few signs that our national security team understands its urgency.
Faster, please.
Compelling McCain's man to talk
Byron York reports at the Washington Examiner,
House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes has issued a subpoena to David Kramer, a former State Department official who, in late November 2016, traveled to London to receive a briefing and a copy of the Trump dossier from its author, former British spy Christopher Steele. Kramer then returned to the U.S. to give the document to Sen. John McCain.
Kramer is a senior fellow at the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University.
McCain later took a copy of the dossier to the FBI's then-director, James Comey. But the FBI already had the document; Steele himself gave the dossier to the bureau in installments, reportedly beginning in early July 2016.
McCain, recovering in Arizona from treatments for cancer, has long refused to detail his actions regarding the dossier. For his part, Kramer was interviewed by the House Intelligence Committee on Dec. 19. The new subpoena stems from statements Kramer made in that interview.
In the session, Kramer told House investigators that he knew the identities of the Russian sources for the allegations in Steele's dossier. But when investigators pressed Kramer to reveal those names, he declined to do so.
Now, he is under subpoena. The subpoena, issued Wednesday afternoon, directs Kramer to appear again before House investigators on Jan. 11.
Knowing Steele's sources is a critical part of the congressional dossier investigation, for both sides. If one argues the document is unverified and never will be, it is critical to learn the identity of the sources to support that conclusion. If one argues the document is the whole truth, or largely true, knowing sources is equally critical.
Beyond that, there is another reason to know Steele's sources, and that is to learn not just the origin of the dossier but its place in the larger Trump-Russia affair. There is a growing belief among some congressional investigators that the Russians who provided information to Steele were using Steele to disrupt the American election as much as the Russians who distributed hacked Democratic Party emails. In some investigators' views, they are the two sides of the Trump-Russia project, both aimed at sowing chaos and discord in the American political system.
Investigators who favor this theory ask a sensible question: Is it likely that all the Russians involved in the attempt to influence the 2016 election were lying, scheming, Kremlin-linked, Putin-backed enemies of America – except the Russians who talked to Christopher Steele?
On the other hand, the theory is still just a theory, for now. And that is one reason House investigators seek Steele's sources – and why they will try to compel Kramer to talk.
Boxtruck gate
Chuck Ross, the terrific Daily Caller reporter tweeted,
At Ace of Spades, Jack Straw comments,
Mornin' Miklos wrote,
TheQuietMan commented,
23: The number of times over the past day that CNN has mentioned the white box truck that obscured view of Trump golfing
0: For comparison, the number of times CNN has mentioned that Politico report on Obama admin's quashing of Hezbollah investigation.
At Ace of Spades, Jack Straw comments,
Why a white truck, Mr Trump? Why not a truck of color?
#racist
Mornin' Miklos wrote,
Bet the truck has Russian plates.
TheQuietMan commented,
The truck is carrying Diet Coke and ice cream. Pallets of it.No doubt there will be many more witty comments here throughout the day.
Here's your chance to pay higher taxes!
David Frum writes in the Atlantic that the way to fix the "regional unfairness" of the Republican tax plan is to tax carbon! Ace of Spades replies,
Hang on, buddy. Those states impose those taxes themselves, and citizens of those states routinely elect politicians who say we should tax people at higher rates.Read more here.
Why shouldn't they actually have to live by their own decisions, instead of being subsidized by the rest of the country (by allowing them to deduct their high state taxes from their federal tax payments), and thus held harmless from their own political prescriptions?
Thursday, December 28, 2017
Trump tweet of the day
Donald J. Trump tweeted,
In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year’s Eve on record. Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!
Is the Mueller investigation a sting?
Here is a different take on the Mueller investigation. Liz Crokin is an investigative journalist.
...Fast forward to May 16, President Trump is now in the White House and meets with Robert Mueller. CNN reported that Trump interviewed him as a potential replacement for fired FBI Director James Comey. As Trump would say, “wrong!” It’s not possible that Mueller could’ve been interviewing for the FBI director position because he already served in that capacity – under Presidents George W. Bush and briefly Barack Obama – and he exceeded the term limit allowed to work in that role. The term limit is ten years and Mueller served as FBI director for 12 years. Mueller got a special additional two-year extension from Obama that the Senate approved. The fake news totally got this wrong — to no one’s surprise.Read more here.
So what was the meeting really about? I believe Trump was finalizing his decision to appoint Mueller as his special prosecutor to investigate Clinton. Don’t believe it? Keep reading.
The day after Mueller’s meeting with Trump, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller to serve as special counsel for the United States Department of Justice. In the appointment record signed by Rosenstein it reads: The Special Counsel is authorized to conduct an investigation including “any links and/or coordination between Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump, and any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation.”
Trump did not collude with Russia. The left and the media have carried that narrative based off of lies and a fake dossier. Trump allowed them to carry their false narrative because he knew he was innocent and that the investigation would eventually turn to the real parties who colluded with Russia. Enter the Clintons. What stands out in the affidavit Rosenstein signed included “matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation” because they knew an investigation into Russian collusion would eventually lead to Clinton.
...If Mueller is so corrupt and intent on protecting the Clintons, like so many on both the right and the left believe, why isn’t Trump sweating? He alluded that he’s not even thinking about firing Mueller. Not only is Trump a man of his word, he’s rarely ever wrong and his instincts are killer. It also should be noted that Mueller is a decorated Marine who served in Vietnam and has received many medals including the Purple Heart.
Mueller was hired to investigate Clinton, period. If my theory proves to be correct, this will go down as one of the most brilliant sting operations in history.
Out with the old
Guest post by
Suzann Darnall
I have enjoyed 2017 much more than I have a year in quite some time! There was much hope and change, true hope and change, in this past year. Hope was crushed under President Obama and all his changes were for the worst!
Under President Trump we have seen hope renewed and changes that have brought about positive movement in so many aspects of our society. Economy is no longer sluggish. Steps are being taken to restore freedoms that were infringed upon. Burdensome taxation is being eased. Steps are being taken to protect citizens. The United Nations is being put on notice that America will not be trampled upon any longer. And, much more is happening and in the planning.
So, as we prepare to say goodbye to 2017, I am looking forward to welcoming 2018. I see it as a new step to seeing nasty old things getting shoved out of the way and making way for new ideas. What is kinda funny though, is that some of the new things will actually be old things. Like the idea of allowing citizens to keep more of their own money. That used to be lots more common. Until government started thinking of our income as theirs.
I am also hoping that in 2018 we will see another bunch of old things getting shoved out of the way. Like some of the old government employees that have been in Congress and the Senate waaay too long! So long that they do not even realize they are citizens anymore and think themselves above the law and deserving of royal treatment. I hope we replace lots of those old fogies with fresh new people with a realistic view of the world and ideas for a ways to make life better for American citizens.
There are lots more things to hope for in 2018. But, mostly I am hoping for my family and friends to have hearts filled with joy. I know there has been much sorrow in these past several years. And, while 2017 was an improvement for most, some are still suffering with grief, illness, and other trials. All of it will not go away with the changing of a page on the calendar. I know this. But, nevertheless, my prayer is that the Lord will give them comfort and peace as they face what lies ahead and deal with the consequences of the past.
May a happy new year greet you as you arise on 1 January 2018. May you choose happiness each day. May you face your troubles with a prayer in your heart, so the Lord can help you face anything and everything with strength and peace. God bless all y’all as we throw out the old, ring in the new, and look to a brighter American future with President Trump leading the charge towards prosperity and freedom!
Sayonara,
Suzann
http://www.suziezoo.com
http://www.woolymammoth.org
Suzann Darnall
I have enjoyed 2017 much more than I have a year in quite some time! There was much hope and change, true hope and change, in this past year. Hope was crushed under President Obama and all his changes were for the worst!
Under President Trump we have seen hope renewed and changes that have brought about positive movement in so many aspects of our society. Economy is no longer sluggish. Steps are being taken to restore freedoms that were infringed upon. Burdensome taxation is being eased. Steps are being taken to protect citizens. The United Nations is being put on notice that America will not be trampled upon any longer. And, much more is happening and in the planning.
So, as we prepare to say goodbye to 2017, I am looking forward to welcoming 2018. I see it as a new step to seeing nasty old things getting shoved out of the way and making way for new ideas. What is kinda funny though, is that some of the new things will actually be old things. Like the idea of allowing citizens to keep more of their own money. That used to be lots more common. Until government started thinking of our income as theirs.
I am also hoping that in 2018 we will see another bunch of old things getting shoved out of the way. Like some of the old government employees that have been in Congress and the Senate waaay too long! So long that they do not even realize they are citizens anymore and think themselves above the law and deserving of royal treatment. I hope we replace lots of those old fogies with fresh new people with a realistic view of the world and ideas for a ways to make life better for American citizens.
There are lots more things to hope for in 2018. But, mostly I am hoping for my family and friends to have hearts filled with joy. I know there has been much sorrow in these past several years. And, while 2017 was an improvement for most, some are still suffering with grief, illness, and other trials. All of it will not go away with the changing of a page on the calendar. I know this. But, nevertheless, my prayer is that the Lord will give them comfort and peace as they face what lies ahead and deal with the consequences of the past.
May a happy new year greet you as you arise on 1 January 2018. May you choose happiness each day. May you face your troubles with a prayer in your heart, so the Lord can help you face anything and everything with strength and peace. God bless all y’all as we throw out the old, ring in the new, and look to a brighter American future with President Trump leading the charge towards prosperity and freedom!
Sayonara,
Suzann
http://www.suziezoo.com
http://www.woolymammoth.org
Seven important scientific breakthroughs in 2017
What were the key scientific discoveries in 2017? Jeff Desjardins reports at Visual Capitalist,
...Key discoveries happened in the fields of gene editing, space travel, quantum communications, astronomy, and quantum physics.Go here to see each one visually represented.
Let’s take a deeper dive into these incredible scientific breakthroughs.
THE SUBATOMIC LEVEL
At the subatomic particle level, there were a couple of noteworthy advances that will help us better understand the complex inner-workings of quantum mechanics.
New particles: Using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a team of scientists discovered five new particles – all from a single analysis. These particles may give us a better understanding of the correlation between quarks and multi-quark states, as well as some clues about the earliest moments of the universe.
Quantum communications: The first unhackable video call happened between China and Vienna in September. Rather than using traditional cryptography, it relied on quantum key distribution (QKD) to protect the call. Using single photons in quantum superposition states is a way to raise the level of security so high, that it’s not even hackable by quantum computers.
THE FINAL FRONTIER
Important progress was also made in space travel and astronomy:
Reusable rockets: Elon Musk and his SpaceX team launched a previously used Falcon 7 rocket booster. For humans to be able to do anything significant off the planet, cutting down the cost of commercial space travel is a crucial step in the right direction.
New Earth-like planets: In a remote star system called TRAPPIST-1, scientists discovered seven Earth-like exoplanets in the “goldilocks zone” – where life (as we know it) can exist.
LIFE SCIENCES
Lastly, the other three major discoveries fall under the category of life sciences:
Embryo gene editing: Researchers successfully edited a one-cell human embryo in Portland, Oregon. This could make it easier to cure heritable diseases or defective genes in the future.
Gene editing in body: A 44-year-old patient suffering from a rare disease, Hunter syndrome, had his genome successfully edited using CRISPR.
Artificial womb: An artificial womb successfully imitated the environment inside a uterus, housing a 23-week old lamb. Premature births are a leading cause of death for newborns.
With the speed of science and technological change continuing to accelerate, it should not be surprising to see an even more exciting list of breakthroughs in 2018.
One man's theories about the crimes and corruption we are witnessing
Imperator_Rex gives us his thoughts on
a tale of a failed sting operation, a dodgy dossier, illegal spying & American heroism, fighting dangerous people.Read more here.
Let's examine how Obama & Clinton, with their cronies, abused power to try & take out an innocent man, Donald J Trump.
First up : THE FAILED STING OPERATION - infiltration of Trump's campaign team.
George Papadopolous (GP) was used by Fusion GPS to infiltrate Trump's campaign and to set up a meeting with Russian insiders.
There are other explanations - he was being wired by FBI to get to Trump, or wired by Trump to get to whoever was trying to set him up.
...Paul Manafort was used by the Podesta Group and/or Fusion GPS to infiltrate Trump's campaign, for the same purpose as GP.
...Trump KNEW Manafort had betrayed him.
He knew GP & Manafort were lickspittle scumbags, hired to burrow inside his campaign.
Trump knew about the sting, Fusion GPS, the Podesta Group. And the illegal spying, too.
And he knew McCabe & Comey were dirty. Also, that the whole thing was being masterminded by Clinton & Obama.
How did he know? Because of this man.
General Michael Flynn. Patriot & hero.
121. That's my opinion. See, Trump & Flynn had known each other well. Since at least early 2015.
122. Flynn had been an informal advisor on his team since mid 2015. Which seems odd for a Democrat, does it not?
123. Well...no, actually. See, Flynn & Trump shared a loathing for the criminals who were destroying America.
124. Flynn loathed Obama, who he regarded as a liar & traitor. I'd say he had come to despise the Clintons & their Foundation, as well.
125. Obama repeatedly tried to undermine, smear & oust him.
126. Flynn had served the American people in military & defense for 30+ years. FULL sec clearance, too. A true patriot.
127.In Aug 2014, when Obama finally removed him, Flynn knew all about the crimes going on. With his IC network, this would have continued.
128. So I think he told Trump he was being set up when Manafort started his overtures. I think he picked that the kid was a plant, too.
129. Flynn is a genius spook. He would have also realized Comey & McCabe weren't disclosing what they knew to Trump.
130. From the moment Manafort & GP started their infiltration, Trump KNEW EVERYTHING. And has ever since.
131. And that's when Trump & Flynn, together at first, but soon with Bannon & Sessions, started planning THE STORM.
132. As we know, the criminals had FAILED. Donald J Trump was elected POTUS. A miracle.
133. Obama & Clinton kept going. They tried to undermine Trump's election, inauguration & his presidency.
134. They published the dossier on 12 January. Predictably, it failed.
135. And all this time, Trump knew EXACTLY what was going on. And he planned to take them all down, one by one.
136. THE WORST CRIME IN AMERICAN HISTORY
137. The Clinton campaign & Obama administration colluded with Putin's people, as well as /...
138. /..Congress, to undermine Donald J Trump's campaign, inauguration & presidency.
139. They funded, planned and coordinated a campaign together, to take him down.
140. Terrible, terrible crimes were committed to do it. Treason, sedition, subversion, racketeering, perjury, the list is endless.
141. Lives were ruined, a people divided. Marriages and families wrecked. All because of a simple lie.
142. That lie? Trump & Putin/Russia colluded to steal an election and give America to Russia.
143. Can you see the scale & gravity of what Clinton & Obama did?
144. These people almost destroyed the United States of America.
145. The objective was POWER. Clinton as POTUS was in everyone's interests.
146. Hillary & Bill Clinton, using The Clinton Foundation, had become insanely rich selling out the country with 'pay for play'.
147. Vladimir Putin needed Clinton. He was achieving critical strategic objectives and had leverage over the Clintons & Obama.
148. Obama needed Clinton. He had compromised his Presidency & sold out the country to protect the Clintons.
149. He was also a fervent anti-American ideologue and globalist. Clinton's agenda was perfect for him.
150. The DNC & Podesta Group, who needed the gravy train of money for access to keep going.
151. Comey, McCabe, Holder, Lynch and Obama administration lackeys ALL needed Clinton.
152. Even the MSM / Clinton media proxies, who had unique access to the inner sanctum of power, needed her.
153. Why did they think they'd get away with it? Hubris. The rule of law meant nothing to them. They mocked it & the American people.
154. Remember, they were CERTAIN that Clinton would win. Or that Trump would lose. This was a risk-free game.
155. The trouble was, in Trump they came up against a genius. Yes, I said it - and that's what I think.
156. Drunk on power, Obama & Clinton forgot the law of unintended consequences. Now THEY must pay the price.
157. There was a time when honor existed. You'd leave traitors in a room with a loaded pistol & a bottle of scotch.
158. But these criminals have no honor. Trump has hard choices ahead, but to restore public trust and belief in /..
159. /..American greatness, harsh punishment will need to be meted out. To the ringleaders, most of all.
160. If there's any man who will do it, it's Donald J Trump, POTUS.
Behind the panda mask is the red dragon!
At The Conservative Treehouse, Sundance gets a kick out of Trump's tweet today about China violating UN sanctions by selling oil to North Korea. Trump has been stroking the Panda's fur, but he knows that behind the panda mask is the red dragon. Read more here.
The Judiciary Committee moves forward with its investigation of Obama administration corruption
Wow! Florida has a couple of really good Congressmen! I am referring to Ron DiSantis and Matt Gaetz. Here is Gaetz being interviewed by Greg Jarrett on Fox.
How Obama's henchmen and women violated the Constitution in spying on the Trump team
Sundance continues to amaze me at The Conservative Treehouse. Today he writes,
Read more here.
As of this writing the FBI and DOJ are refusing to answer foundational questions about that second FISA application and the subsequent FISA warrant that was used as a justification for the Wiretaps and Surveillance that began on the Trump Campaign.
The dates here seem intentionally cloudy because, according to James Comey testimony, the FBI counterintelligence operation began in July 2016, around the same time the Steele Dossier was given to the FBI and simultaneous to the first FISA application being denied.
The second FISA application was approved in/around October 2016. All current media outlines overlook the obvious question of whether the wiretaps and surveillance began in July 2016 without a warrant.
Given the nature of the illegality involved with the entire effort it would be naive to think the FBI waited until October for wiretaps to become legal when their own admissions state they began the operation in July, three months prior.
The story of October 2016 has more interesting aspects. But first, we must gain a greater understanding of the division within the DOJ that was involved.
♦The National Security Division (NSD) inside the DOJ was where all of the collaboration appears to have taken place. The NSD is a sub-division within the DOJ similar to the Counterintelligence Division within the FBI.
Using the National Security Division (NSD) inside the DOJ presents a specifically useful angle for the purposes of hiding duplicitous, unethical and unlawful conduct.
Responding to a 2015 request by the DOJ Office of Inspector General, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates told the internal watchdog they cannot investigate the National Security Division.
That’s right, there is essentially no oversight on any activity happening inside the NSD.
In 2015 the OIG requested oversight and it was Sally Yates who responded with a lengthy 58 page legal explanation saying, essentially, ‘nope – not allowed.’ (PDF HERE) All of the DOJ is subject to oversight, except the NSD.
The Department of Justice’s own Inspector General (currently Michael Horowitz who opened a January 2017 investigation into the 2016 politicization of the FBI and DOJ) is not allowed to investigate anything that happens within the NSD branch of the Department of Justice.
See the ‘useful arrangement‘?
Yeah, Funny that.
So it might not be so coincidental the players used on the DOJ side of “Operation Trump” all seem to come from within the National Security Division.
I digress, but remember, I said pay attention to the September/October 2016 time-frame.
DOJ Deputy Attorney Bruce Ohr was “demoted” in the summer of 2017 after the Inspector General discovered unreported 2016 contacts between Ohr and Russian Dossier author Christopher Steele, as well as contact with Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson, in October 2016. [Also remember Bruce’s wife, Nellie Ohr, was hired by Fusion GPS in April 2016 to start the research that ultimately ended with the sketchy dossier.]
Also in October 2016, right around the time the DOJ lawyers formatted the FBI information (Steele Dossier etc.) for the FISA Application, the head of the NSD, Asst. Attorney General John P Carlin, left his job.
It would have specifically been John Carlin’s responsibility to ensure a valid legal basis for the FISA application submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Remember also, the July 2016 application was denied, a rarity. Therefore, if the second application used ‘sketchy’ enhancements – for the matter of accountability it no longer mattered because Asst. Attorney General John Carlin was headed to the exits.
After NSD head John Carlin left the DOJ he was replaced with Acting Asst. Attorney General Mary McCord. [*Remember this*] Also note “Stuart Evans”.
...Immediately after the second FISA warrant is approved,… in the period where John Carlin has given his notice of intent to leave, but not yet left… Inside those specific two weeks,… On September 26th, 2016, the National Security Division of the DOJ tells the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) they have been breaking the law; and the NSD specifically informs the court they have been using FISA applications to spy on their domestic political opposition.
Wait, what?
You’ve… just…. got… to… be… kidding… right?
...The NSD admits the details how, under President Obama, the Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch Department of Justice used FISA applications to spy on political opponents, unmasked conversations to discover content, and also disclosed this has been happening for SIX YEARS prior to the beginning of the July 2016 joint FBI/DOJ “Trump Operation”.
Now, SERIOUSLY, does anyone doubt what the October 2016 FISA warrant was about?
Read more here.
Trump plays for keeps
At Town Hall, Kurt Schlichter writes,
...Robert Mueller’s Keystone Kop Korps started off with “unquestioned integrity” and ended the year with totally questioned integrity. The mainstream media abandoned the principle of objectivity in favor of shrill advocacy, yet it is baffled that most Americans now consider its members like just another bunch of partisan hacks.Read more here.
In the White House, where everyone who was anyone told us Felonia Milhous von Pantsuit would reign, President Donald Trump finished the year by signing a tax reform bill that punished conservatives’ enemies and rewarded their friends. The Democrats get to go tell their base of blue state coastal swells, “Uh, sorry about losing those state tax deductions cuz we were too busy resisting to actually negotiate and thereby get a seat at the table.” Cue the Sad Trombone. Trump plays for keeps, unlike the squish-cons who play for media hugs and invitations to the kool kidz’ parties.
He was supposed to lose the primary, but he didn’t. He was supposed to lose the general, but he didn’t. He was supposed to fall victim to the covert schemes of leftist bureaucrats and the overt obstruction of The Resistance, but he didn’t. Instead, Donald Trump has prospered as the most conservative president since Ronald Reagan. And it’s breaking the souls of his enemies. Deliciously.
"If you "fight for women" in public, you get to take some privileges with them in private."
Ace notices that
Gabrielle Okun reports at The Daily Caller,
if you "fight for women" in public, you get to take some privileges with them in private.
See Bill Clinton.
Gabrielle Okun reports at The Daily Caller,
A liberal editor who bashed the GOP just got fired for alleged sexual harassment, according to a Friday report.Read more here.
Stephen Henderson, the managing director of opinion and commentary at The Detroit Free Press and a Pulitzer Prize Winner, was fired for alleged sexual misconduct, the outlet reported. Henderson is accused of sexual harassment to women over the years following the results of an internal investigation.
Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Churchill comes to America immediately after Pearl Harbor
At Lifezette Lee Habeeb tells us that on the day after Pearl Harbor Winston Churchill left England on a boat for America. On December 26, 1941 he addressed Congress. There is this 6-minute video at Lifezette, and I think YouTube may have others, at least in audio.
Habeeb gives us more information here.
Habeeb gives us more information here.
You will not find out anything about her attacker until the end of the video
A woman was attacked and stabbed 14 times by a Somali migrant in Minneapolis. Watch the video here.
Oh my gosh, now we have to figure out how to compete with America!
Tom Maguire writes at Just One Minute,
As further evidence that they have fully lost the plot, NY Times reporters make a clear case that Trump has no shot at being the next President of the European Union:
U.S. Tax Bill May Inspire Cuts Globally, While Fueling Trade Tensions
To President Trump and congressional Republicans, the overhaul of the tax code that became law on Friday will make the United States a better place to do business. To the rest of the world, it has the potential to challenge the global economic order, creating an uneven playing field and setting off a race among countries to cut corporate taxes.
The overhaul is already threatening economic relations, adding to concerns that Mr. Trump is advancing a nationalistic agenda at the expense of other countries.
Weird. On a normal day we are told the tax bill is a giveaway to the rich that will do nothing for the working class. But today we learn that world leaders are concerned it will lead to investments and business activity in the United States that would otherwise occur elsewhere and Trump is to blame. That's a heckuva message: Europe and China wouldn't have to worry about US competition if Hillary were in charge!
For the umpty-bumpth time I am reminded I will never have sufficient intellectual agility to be a progressive.
2018? "Find something you care about, something which involves an act of creation. Let this creation lead you to opportunity!"
Joel D. Hirst writes,
America’s 2017? Four trillion in new wealth, unemployment at 4.7% is the lowest in 17 years, consumer confidence highest in a long time. A return of the rule of law after eight years of lawlessness; tax cuts that make even the EU tremble. Our supermarkets are full; our universities are the best in the world; we live long and prosperous lives full of choices and opportunities. Elysium in a world of want and suffering; something we were sensitive to in the age of our grandparents, prosperity and sacred values which we used as a platform for great acts of kindness product not of our moralizing vanity but because we truly believed that ancient axiom “To those who much has been given, much is required.”Read more here.
That is before the arrival of the “The Age of Outrage” stole our sight, our soul. Narcissism marauding as correctness; ‘stilted justice’ as compassion; unknowing as wisdom.
“Age of Outrage”, or maybe I should call it the “Age of Misery”. And why? Why do we choose to be angry? Everybody is miserable all the time nowadays – and it doesn’t make any sense; measured against any standard you wish to choose, anywhere in the history of histories, America is a land of tremendous opportunity and incredible bounty and almost unlimited personal freedom; even more so in 2017.
I am genuinely baffled.
In his viral podcast Joe Rogan says “To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order; we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right.”
Its so much about this, isn’t it? Gratitude, discipline in the small things, love of community and family and the reverence of gentleness and of those things which we know to be right and true and good. So, lest our “Age of Outrage”, our “Age of Misery” extend and we transform our planned paradise into a raging inferno through our bitterness, our wickedness – let me make a humble suggestion on this my last entry of 2017: Whatever your political leanings, I urge you, nay implore you to forget about the White House, forget about the Governor’s Mansion, forget even about the town council and the special election for the dogcatcher you are certain will herald national calamity. Find something you care about, something which involves an act of creation. Let this creation lead you to opportunity, for yourself and for others, and invest in that as down the rolling road of wonder you travel. Be positive, put down the IPhone upon which you are typing that spiteful Tweet to hurl against an unknown enemy, and lift your head. That first person you see…? Say something nice to them. Walk next door to your neighbor’s house and take a cookie platter or a box of chocolates; each time you find yourself filled with rage, make a kind decision. To those with whom you find yourself communing, devote yourself to constructive intercourse that uplifts and builds. And finally, do so locally in your communities and the places where you naturally rest your ideas of home. If you do this, you might end up turning the corner on your miserable 2017; and we might even discover again the bounty which we have so often used to help our hurting and suffering world.
Long term use of marijuana can bring serious misery
Pauline Bartolone reports for Kaiser Health News that heavy use of marijuana can bring people some serious misery. A small percentage of people who smoke marijuana find that long-term use makes them sick with a violent vomiting illness. Read more here.
Napolitano and Hannity
Here is a video of two of our most dynamic journalists, Andrew Napolitano and Sean Hannity. You may not have seen these during Christmas week, so here they are!
Comey's "monumental bad judgment," racist trees, and Newsweek believes Trump stole Christmas
The Revenge of James Comey
Let's not forget Michael Horowitz, the Inspector General of the Justice Department. We will be getting his full report January 15.
Chris Swecker, former Assistant Director of the FBI with 38 years experience in criminal investigations, lays the blame on James Comey for drawing the FBI into politics with his "monumental bad judgment" and "a very half-hearted investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails."
The Islamic State has lost 98% of its territory, yet that has barely made the papers because nobody wants to give Donald Trump the credit!
Mark does a hilarious bit on California politicians wanting to get rid of racist trees.
Is it a mistake to send your child to college? This George Mason professor believes only about 5% should go to college. He is a big fan of vocational education, noting that in Germany and Switzerland vocational education is big, and they have very little underclass (except for migrants in Germany). You get a peer group of skilled craftsmen, instead of a peer group of criminals and dropouts.
Newsweek actually has a piece alleging that Trump and white nationalists stole Christmas, using phrases like Merry Christmas. Psychotherapist and journalist Nell Daly says that Pew Research notes that 90% of Americans celebrate Christmas, but only 46 % of those who celebrate Christmas view it as a religious holiday!
Let's not forget Michael Horowitz, the Inspector General of the Justice Department. We will be getting his full report January 15.
Chris Swecker, former Assistant Director of the FBI with 38 years experience in criminal investigations, lays the blame on James Comey for drawing the FBI into politics with his "monumental bad judgment" and "a very half-hearted investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails."
The Islamic State has lost 98% of its territory, yet that has barely made the papers because nobody wants to give Donald Trump the credit!
Mark does a hilarious bit on California politicians wanting to get rid of racist trees.
Is it a mistake to send your child to college? This George Mason professor believes only about 5% should go to college. He is a big fan of vocational education, noting that in Germany and Switzerland vocational education is big, and they have very little underclass (except for migrants in Germany). You get a peer group of skilled craftsmen, instead of a peer group of criminals and dropouts.
Newsweek actually has a piece alleging that Trump and white nationalists stole Christmas, using phrases like Merry Christmas. Psychotherapist and journalist Nell Daly says that Pew Research notes that 90% of Americans celebrate Christmas, but only 46 % of those who celebrate Christmas view it as a religious holiday!
Crimes committed in America by non-citizens
I found out that Mark Steyn hosted the Tucker Carlson Tonight show last night, so I Googled it in order to post it on this blog. But Google brought me Tucker's show from the night before! Before I could change it to Mark, Tucker came on with a compelling monologue about crimes committed in America by non-citizens. The US Sentencing Commission reports that non-citizens commit 22% of all federal murder convictions, 18% of fraud, 33% of money laundering, 29% of drug trafficking, 72% of drug possession!
Here is the rest of Tucker's show.
Here is the rest of Tucker's show.
Someone we can look up to!
I confess I no longer follow NFL, but this tweet from Bradley Pinon of the San Francisco 49ers is certainly worthy of our attention.
Bigger than the game.
— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) December 22, 2017
As a #WPMOY nominee, @pinion92 received two #SuperBowl tickets to use as he saw fit. He decided to surprise lifelong friend Jason with an early Christmas present. This was Jason's reaction. #WPMOYChallengePinion pic.twitter.com/eizAAYXTeG
Kwanzaa tainted by its founder
Jeff Dunetz reports at The Lid,
...strangely in this country where political correctness is on overload, a day invented in 1966 by a rapist who ran a Black separatist group is considered by some as a holiday on par with Christmas, or New Year’s. Kwanzaa is exclusively an American holiday and is not celebrated in any other part of the world (including Africa). Kwanzaa runs from December 26th-January 1st. It’s supposed to be a week-long holiday honoring African culture and traditions, but is tainted by it’s founder and original purpose.Read more here.
The man who created the holiday, Maulana Karenga was convicted in 1971 of torturing two women who were members of US (United Slaves), a black nationalist cult he had founded. A May 14, 1971, article in the Los Angeles Times related the testimony of one of the women:
“Deborah Jones, who once was given the Swahili title of an African queen, said she and Gail Davis were whipped with an electrical cord and beaten with a karate baton after being ordered to remove their clothes. She testified that a hot soldering iron was placed in Miss Davis’ mouth and placed against Miss Davis’ face and that one of her own big toes was tightened in a vise. Karenga, head of US, also put detergent and running hoses in their mouths, she said.”
Karanga was convinced that the women were trying to poison him. He and three members of his cult had tortured the women in an attempt to find some nonexistent “crystals” of poison. Karenga thought his enemies were out to get him.
Now I am not a doctor, nor have I ever played one on television but this Karenga guy sounds like a paranoid psycho. Somehow I cannot see rational people wanting to observe a holiday created by such a sick violent man (but then again, Al Sharpton led two anti-Semitic pogroms and he is considered a civil rights leader). But especially this year when sexual assault of women has been in the headlines almost consistantly for months, why would anybody want to celebrate a holiday invented by a man who tortured women?
Perhaps Kwanzaa is observed because this part of the Kwanzaa story is rarely mentioned by the mainstream media.
When he invented the holiday, Karenga said his goal was to
“give Blacks an alternative to the existing holiday and give Blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and history, rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society.”
Arguably, this holiday raised by some to the level of Christmas has the totally opposite purpose. While Christmas is meant to unify, Kwanzaa is meant to divide. Or as the then 16 year old Rev. Al Sharpton explained the feast would perform the valuable service of “de-whitizing” Christmas.
Heck even the scam’s creator, Maulana Karenga admitted it was a fraud. In 1978 he told the Washington Post’s Hollie West:
“I created Kwanzaa,” laughed Ron Karenga like a teenager who’s just divulged a deeply held, precious secret. “People think it’s African. But it’s not. I wanted to give black people a holiday of their own. So I came up with Kwanzaa. I said it was African because you know black people in this country wouldn’t celebrate it if they knew it was American. Also, I put it around Christmas because I knew that’s when a lot of bloods (blacks) would be partying!”
"How dare United Airlines favor a sleazy politician over a paying passenger? You know how? Graft. It's called bribery too. But whatever you call it, it has no place in our country."
Susan Carroll reports at Chron about United Airlines giving a woman's first class seat to Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee of Houston.
CBD has this to say at Ace of Spades.
CBD has this to say at Ace of Spades.
We started a revolution to change the world's paradigm that some people are better than others. But we have regressed to a 21st century version of royalty, and it disgusts me.
This is one of the many things that must change before we return to a society more in tune with the one our founders envisioned. The idea that a member of Congress is in any way more important than any other citizen of these United States is anathema to everything we stand for, fought for, died for, and strive to protect.
And the cozy, disgusting, rent-seeking relationship between business and our ruling class is another thing that needs to end. Yes, that is my secret populist emerging again, but I can't think of another way to describe how I feel about it. We need to break the power of government officials, and we need to destroy the relationship between big business and government. How dare United Airlines favor a sleazy politician over a paying passenger? You know how? Graft. It's called bribery too. But whatever you call it, it has no place in our country.
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
Unifying, rather than dividing
Victor Davis Hanson writes in Jewish World Review,
...America has survived slavery, civil war, the Japanese-American internment, and Jim Crow—and largely because it has upheld three principles for unifying, rather than dividing, individuals.Read more here.
The first concerns the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution, which were unique documents for their time and proved transcendent across time and space. Both documents enshrined the ideal that all people were created equal and were human first, with inalienable rights from God that were protected by government. These founding principles would eventually trump innate tribal biases and prejudices to grant all citizens their basic rights.
Second, given America's two-ocean buffer, the United States could control its own demographic destiny. Americans usually supported liberal immigration policies largely because of the country's ability to monitor the numbers of new arrivals and the melting pot's ability to assimilate, integrate, and intermarry immigrants, who would soon relegate their racial, religious, and ethnic affinities to secondary importance.
Finally, the United States is the most individualistic and capitalistic of the Western democracies. The nation was blessed with robust economic growth, rich natural resources, and plenty of space. It assumed that its limited government and ethos of entrepreneurialism would create enough widespread prosperity and upward mobility that affluence—or at least the shared quest for it—would create a common bond superseding superficial Old World ties based on appearance or creed.
Twitter Tidbits
Sarah Abdallah tweeted,
Security Studies group tweeted,
HuffPost tweeted,
Obianuju Ekeocha replied,
Phillip Schuyler tweeted,
And finally, a homeless man is honored for rescuing a female officer who was trying to subdue a criminal.
Merry Christmas from Syria’s Aleppo, free of ISIS and Al-Qaeda jihadists. A beautiful sight that won’t be seen on mainstream media.
Security Studies group tweeted,
Christians in Mosul Celebrate First Post-ISIS Christmas Mass in Years.
HuffPost tweeted,
Former CIA director Brennan rips Trump's 'narcissistic, vengeful' behavior on UN vote.
Obianuju Ekeocha replied,
President Obama didn’t only threaten but immediately pulled funding from African countries that passed laws to define marriage as between one man and one woman. His administration punished us for not kneeling before the rainbow flag.
THAT was narcissistic & vengeful.
Phillip Schuyler tweeted,
Barack Obama used the American presidency to protect one group of terrorists (Hezbollah) from receiving justice to help a larger, more dangerous group of death-to-America chanters (Iran) acquire nuclear weapons.
And finally, a homeless man is honored for rescuing a female officer who was trying to subdue a criminal.
South Carolina police department honors homeless black man for intervening when a woman police officer was overtaken! The Hero says, “someone has to step up”! pic.twitter.com/Z04S1Imymn
— 'GITMO' BAMA 🎗 (@President1Trump) December 22, 2017
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