
Since when does the Attorney General of the
United States get involved in child custody cases? Since when are automatic weapons required
to settle such cases?
 In 1949, this definition of "terrorism" could be
found on page 1346 of Funk & Wagnall's Standard Dictionary of the English Language.
 Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, 1970, page 911.
This page is written for the benefit of people who have absolute faith
and trust in the government. Perhaps you know people who believe the
government can do no wrong. People who believe that the government
never lies. People who believe that every good and perfect
thing comes from the federal government. One fellow I know
comes to mind. When the government declares it illegal to
inhale, he will be the first person in town to turn blue. And
he will probably be the first person in town with a bar code on his
forehead. He will take the government's side in any argument, because
the government is his god. To him, and others like him,
the situation shown in the photo above is perfectly normal.
Here is some of the evidence that the federal government
and some state governments have too much power and
too little restraint. In fact, much of this web site is
devoted to the never-ending task of spotlighting abusive government
and bad ideas. Tyranny is defined as cruel and oppressive government,
and that is exactly what is described in some of the news items shown below.
Subsections:
The Road to Tyranny is All Downhill From Here
Abuse of Power by Ordinary Cops
The War on Little Kids with Lemonade Stands
Videotaping the police
Money Down the Drain
Domestic surveillance
Abusive and Invasive Searches at the Airport
Snitch on Your Neighbor
The TIPS program
Know Your Customer
Obama's "snitch on your neighbor" program: The 2013 version.
Government Hostility Toward the Right Wing
Incompetence and Absurd Application of the Law
Uncle Sam loses stuff — especially guns and laptop computers.
Uncle Sam is afraid to say what he means
The Steven Hatfill / Anthrax Investigation
Threats to the Constitution
The Bill of Rights is Taking a Beating
The Prosecution of the Duke Lacrosse Team
Civil Disobedience Related to Same-Sex Marriage Laws
Property Rights and Property Seizures ...
including commentary about the Supreme Court's Kelo decision.
Invasion of Privacy (includes numerous subtopics)
The Government's Role as Overprotective Nanny
... including The Smoking Section
... and Governor Perry's Vaccination Mandate
The use of Traffic Signals as Fundraisers ... as well as seat belt laws and speed traps.
The use and abuse of Tasers
The use of the IRS as a weapon,
... and The loss of Lois Lerner's most important emails at the most convenient moment.
Taxes in general,
specifically, Cigarette taxes
and The Proposed "Odometer Tax"
The Americans with Disabilities Act
The Endangered Species Act
The USA Patriot Act
Waco
Waco II
Ruby Ridge
FEMA — the Federal Emergency Management Agency
Other Items of Interest
Additional pages on similarly irritating subjects:
Zero-Tolerance
The Invasion of the Food Police
The War vs. Liberty and Freedom
Gun Control
Pork Barrel Politics
Carnivore & Echelon
Hate Crime Laws
The Proposed National ID Card
Featured articles:
An
L.A. councilman lied to the FBI. Probation officials say he deserves no jail time. It was the first blockbuster
case to surface in the federal corruption probe of Los Angeles City Hall — a multi-count indictment accusing
former Councilman Mitchell Englander of taking envelopes of cash, lying to the FBI about that money and obstructing its
investigation. Englander, while serving in office, made false statements to FBI agents during three separate
interviews, prosecutors said, providing untrue information about his dealings with a businessman who gave him $15,000 in two
casino bathrooms. The case was resolved quickly, with Englander pleading guilty to a single count of scheming to
falsify material facts. But now, prosecutors are voicing objections to the sentence recommended by federal probation
officials: three years' probation, a $9,500 fine and no jail time or community service.
The U.S.
Government is Hopelessly Corrupt. [Scroll down] Today, in addition to maximizing profits, the oligarchy
wants to control what you read, what you think and what you are permitted to express. There is an unholy and dangerous
alliance combining the media and Big Tech with the national security state, that is, the intelligence services, the
military-industrial complex and law enforcement. It is, quite literally, an effort to abrogate the First Amendment of
the U.S. Constitution and eliminate free speech. The United States government has gone beyond authoritarianism towards
the Chinese Communist Party model of state capitalism and totalitarianism. And what better candidate to carry that
model forward than Joe Biden, who is already compromised by his close connections with the Chinese government? Make no
mistake, Donald Trump won the 2020 Presidential election. It was stolen, not only from him, but, more importantly, it
was stolen from the American people by the well-organized and well-financed application of massive electoral fraud.
Democrats
to Censure Mo Brooks and Louie Gohmert in Coming Days for Challenging Election Fraud and Blaming Riots on Them.
Democrats are planning to censure Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) and Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) in the coming days for
challenging the stolen 2020 election. Democrats want to pin the rioting in the US Capitol by Trump supporters and
Antifa on the Republican lawmakers who had nothing to do with it! This is how a tyrannical government behaves.
Democrats have all the power and they are going to use it to punish anyone who stands in their way.
We
Desperately Need SOME Institution to Execute as Constitutionally Designed. Trump supporters' frustration is
predicated in large part upon decades' worth of America's institutions not doing what they are Constitutionally mandated to
do. Our government is supposed to be limited — and subservient to We the People. It's been more than a
century since any of that was true. The examples of this ever-worsening situation are more numerous than the stars in
the sky. But generally speaking, the Executive Branch and all its very many agencies don't do what they're supposed to
do — and do all sorts of things they are not supposed to do. The Legislative Branch doesn't do what the
Legislative Branch is supposed to do — and does all sorts of things it is not supposed to do. And the
Judicial Branch doesn't do what the Judicial Branch is supposed to do — and does all sorts of things it is not
supposed to do.
Waving
Goodbye to the America We All Knew and Loved. The worst shortcoming of our government is its failure to
maintain election integrity. [...] The 2020 presidential election has brought us even lower on the ladder. We have more
than a thousand sworn affidavits attesting to massive voter fraud: suspension of signature verification, violation of state
election rules, non-verification of mail-in ballots, backdating of ballots, double-voting, dead people voting, hiding ballots
under the table, refusal to allow poll-watching, and vote-switching by machine systems. "People are going on the record
under oath and risking being canceled, doxed, and even accosted, to tell what they have seen about this election process,"
said Rep. Michael Cloud. "The apparent lack of action from the Justice Department regarding a number of anomalies,
statistical improbabilities, and sworn accusations of fraud is troubling." It may be troubling, but it is consistent with
partisan activities of the DOJ, the FBI, and the IRS. FBI Director James Comey's refusal to indict Hillary Clinton, Obama's
weaponization of the IRS against conservative groups, and inaction from the Durham investigation have destroyed the public's
confidence in our justice system.
We
Were Laughed Out of Court because the Courts Have Become Ridiculous. Conservatives who object to election fraud
have found that liberals' favorite retort is "your claims have been laughed out of court." This argument is authoritarian
in its reasoning. It defers to a juridical priesthood and allows one guild, the attorneys, to override what average people
can see in front of them. Such an argument should not stagger wise conservatives. [...] People who have been granted
juridical authority can indeed err en masse by an enormous margin, for long periods of time, on matters that should be obvious.
[...] It was bad enough that the United States courts rejected civil rights cases from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth
century out of hand. By the twenty-first century, American courts were on course to affirm some of the most preposterous
claims about sex and gender ever asserted in all human history. The erosion of commonsense language that arguably began with
Roe v. Wade moved quickly in forty-two years to the insanity of Obergefell v. Hodges and even to the
madness of the supposedly conservative-dominated Supreme Court in 2020's Bostock and Henderson v. Box.
Without
Our Constitution, We're Under Occupation. I don't know if fed up Americans will rise up in the near future and
defend their liberties against an ever more abusive and oppressive system of government, but I do know that 2020 has revealed
vividly the post-constitutional wilderness the nation has entered. Not since the days of slavery or internment have
federal and local governments attacked the natural rights and freedoms of individual Americans so concertedly as they have
this past year. Arbitrary house arrests; the denial of religious freedoms; the closing of private businesses without
any equitable measures of compensation; the intentional disregard for the destruction of private property while anarchists
are given general grants of immunity; and the absolute refusal by governors, secretaries of state, attorneys general, and
judges to provide for and ensure free and fair elections have combined to produce a lawless year in the United States.
A
Call to Arms for All Patriots to Come to the Aid of Their Country. Nov. 3, 2020, a new day of infamy, a
devious covert attack shook the United States of America to its core. This attack was worse than Pearl Harbor or 9/11.
The perpetrators were our elitist aristocracy and political class that reject the concept of self-governing by We the People.
Complicit were our unelected administrative state, the Deep State, the mainstream media (MSM), Big Tech, The New World
Order (Globalists — The Great Reset), and hostile foreign governments, specifically China. This evil coalition
seeks to subvert the People's will by undermining our core beliefs, sovereignty, and overthrowing our government as created by our
founders. [...] This action was yet another coup to conceal the many past criminal acts of these perpetrators, e.g., treason,
misprision of treason, rebellion or insurrection, and advocating the government's overthrow. Including violating the People's
civil rights under the First, Second, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments and many other serious federal felonies that so far have
gone unpunished.
Steadfast
Doesn't Mean When It's Easy. [Scroll down] It was during one of those briefing trips to DC when I
recognized a serious disconnect between what the people within those institutions of government viewed as their role, and
what We The People expected of them. It was also the first time when I realized that internal corrective action
was unlikely to succeed because the scale of corrupt activity was not simply based on intent, but also present because the
absence of morality was metastatic throughout the system. I'm certain there are good people in DC, but the systems
surrounding them have lost their originating purpose. The central function of U.S. government is now so corrupt the
institutions regard 'We The People' as the problem the people within the system must protect themselves from. I
quickly recognized the solutions to our national issues were never going to come from our requests to those who operate
within the institutions. However, even worse was the impact we were having on each other due to our national
frustration. It was evident within our frustration — as a nation we are losing a sense of identity, unity
and fellowship.
The
"Republican Democratic party" defines corruption: They stole our money and gave it back to us. The latest
Republican democratic party garbage bill is just that, GARBAGE. I started reading it yesterday, and by 7 am this morning
I had a strange urge to pick up a pitchfork and drive to DC. I expected it to be bad, but not this bad. The first
question I have for grifters on Capital Hill is "How can you give us money that's already ours? Sure, it's our tax
money so you can say it's already ours, but that's not what I mean. What I'm saying is that they stole our money and
gave it back to us. How? If you have paying close attention you would know that we have $450 billion left over
from the first round of stimulus checks and the CARES ACT. The money had already been approved and is already ours. We
didn't have to wait for a new round of funding to be approved. It was just a simple matter of distribution. What
they did was steal our money, our 450 billion, called it "repurpose", and gave it back to us, as if it was theirs to give.
The
Abominable 'America Last' Porkulus Bill. This country is not governed by a "Republican Party" and a "Democratic
Party." It is governed by an establishment "uniparty" that betrays our citizens at every turn. Exhibit A:
The joint annual ritual of fiscal vulgarity known as the omnibus spending bill. [...] The juxtaposition of measly COVID-19
relief for U.S. citizens against the backdrop of lavish aid for illegal immigrants, the military-industrial complex, Big Pharma,
overseas social justice warriors, nongovernmental organizations and foreign countries is just too brazen to ignore.
Americans will receive $600 COVID-19 relief checks and $300 unemployment payments as part of the consolidated federal
government funding package. The $900 billion in COVID-related aid is folded into the massive, 5,600-page legislation
encompassing 12 fiscal 2021 spending bills worth $1.4 trillion. [...] We've had enough. A manufactured public health
crisis, post-George Floyd anarchotyranny, and the wholesale hijacking of our election system are pushing citizens to the
brink of revolt.
Yet
another Democrat leader tells people to stay home for Christmas, then announces she will travel to visit her
relatives. Democrat leaders like Governors Gavin Newsom, Andrew CVuomo, Gretchen Whitmer, and J.B. Pritzker,
Mayors Lauri [sic] Lightfoot and London Breed, and now Mecklenburg (Charlotte), North Carolina County Executive Dena Diorio,
have all exposed themselves as outright hypocrites and elitists by telling ordinary people to obey restrictions on their
personal freedoms while flaunting those same limitations themselves. It is as if some madness has gripped Democrat
elected officials, compelling them to flaunt their contempt for those they are supposed to lead and their belief that they
alone are capable of making rational decisions about which risks to take, while the ignorant sheep must be told what to do
and contrained. Yesterday [12/23/2020], in a virtual news conference, County Executive Dena Diorio made a fool of
herself by telling county residents to stay home for Christmas, and then under questioning admitting that she would be
traveling by car to Durham (142 miles) to spend Christmas with her family.
Weissmann
Lashes Out at Trump Over Manafort, Stone Pardons -- Cooks Up New Plot to Prosecute Them for Perjury and Obstruction.
President Trump on Wednesday evening [12/23/2020] asserted his authority and announced 26 new Christmas pardons including ones to
Paul Manafort and Roger Stone. Trump's 2016 campaign manager Paul Manafort was hunted down by Mueller's goons after he helped
President Trump win the 2016 election. Manafort was sentenced to 7 years in prison for tax evasion and other crimes
stemming from his Ukrainian lobbying. Andrew Weissmann, the real prosecutor in charge of Mueller's witch hunt lashed out
at President Trump on Wednesday night following his pardon of Manafort and Stone.
Stimulus
Bill Stimulates Congress's Lust for Power. And so once again the mountain has labored mightily and brought
forth a mouse. Our dysfunctional Congress has just passed another "stimulus" bill designed to stimulate nothing but
their own lust for power and determination to hang on to their seats at all costs — in this case, some $900 billion
of our money, of which they have just doled out to the peons the grand sum of six hundred simoleons to help ease the pain of the
Dreaded Corona Virus and their devastation of our livelihoods. Thanks, Mitch McConnell (78) and Nancy Pelosi (80).
Fat-cat elderly millionaires both, these lifetime swamp creatures and selfless public servants have just pulled off an astounding
feet of federal beneficence: sending pittances to many Americans to "ameliorate" the effects of the CCP virus panic that they
themselves — and "servants" at every level of government — have caused.
Will
we go quietly into the night? We've watched the rise of totalitarianism in disbelief as it has taken hold in
the form of lockdowns, riots, censorship, and election fraud. We have, for the most part, been obedient as a handful of
"experts" told us what we can and cannot do after the coronavirus swept in. We've tolerated demands to close our
businesses, schools, and churches, not leave our house or have contact with aging loved ones, among other demonic
edicts. We've stood silently by as a "reimagined" police force issued citations, forcibly removed people from public
spaces, padlocked doors, and made arrests because someone dared to live as a free American. We've even been physically
attacked while expressing support for the police, as the police stood by and did nothing. On the heels of coronavirus
lockdowns, came riots across the country as law enforcement was told to stand down. And they obeyed. Then the
left pulled a poison arrow from their quiver and stole the election in their final coup attempt to deny a duly elected
President his second term. And nary a soul went to jail for any of it. We're living in a world gone
mad. Lawlessness and criminal behavior has become a norm and no one does a thing to stop it.
The Left Redefines Resistance as
'Sedition'. It was inevitable that the Democrats would overreact to legal challenges by President Trump and
other Republicans to corrupt election practices in swing states, but some responses have been unhinged even by their
standards. One recurring refrain is particularly disturbing — that lawyers, members of Congress, and state
attorneys general who supported post-election litigation are guilty of sedition. At least one Democratic
congressman insists that attorneys representing the president in such challenges should be disbarred and that House members
who supported Texas v. Pennsylvania in the Supreme Court shouldn't be seated in Congress. One of the
defendants in that ill-fated lawsuit described it as a "seditious abuse of the judicial process." This dangerous view of
dissent has a long, sordid history among progressives. Democratic President Woodrow Wilson, for example, was the driving
force behind the notorious Sedition Act of 1918, passed by his fellow Democrats at a time when they controlled both houses of
Congress. This anti-democratic outrage made it a felony crime to criticize the government and, by extension, Wilson himself.
Joe
Biden's niece Caroline gets no jail time after DUI guilty plea. Another Biden walks free. Joe Biden's
niece Caroline Biden pleaded guilty to DUI on Dec. 3 — and was sentenced to 20 days to six months of
"confinement," Pennsylvania court records said. But the small print shows Biden, 33, won't see a day behind bars after
she negotiated a plea deal with the Montgomery County district attorney. Instead of jail, she got five-plus months of
probation, with 20 days of rehab in January counted toward her sentence. The walk-free plea continues a long Biden
family tradition of avoiding jail time. A [New York] Post investigation in July found at least eight other busts of
Bidens resulted in wrist slaps.
Rhode
Island Governor Tells Citizens To 'Stay Home' Before Heading To Wine Bar. Democratic Rhode Island Gov. Gina
Raimondo was seen drinking at a wine bar just four days after reminding citizens to comply with coronavirus restrictions and
stay home except for essential activities. Photos published by Turtleboy Sports and the libertarian group Liberty Rhode
Island reportedly show Raimondo sitting in a local restaurant for a "wine and paint" night without a mask. The photo was
taken by Erica Oliveras, who said she was also at the event at Barnaby's Public House in Providence, Rhode Island, according to
ABC 6 News.
Democratic
governor tells people to 'stay home except for essential activities,' then is spotted at a wine bar without a
mask. Democratic politicians have been caught openly disobeying their own COVID-19 lockdown orders for
months: The latest hypocritical offender is the governor of Rhode Island. Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, a
Democrat, was reportedly photographed at a wine bar. The photo shows Raimondo, who is not wearing a face mask, enjoying
a glass of wine at Barnaby's Public House in Providence. The photo was taken during a "wine and paint" event last
Friday [12/11/2020], according to Erica Oliveras, who took the photo. However, only days earlier, Raimondo instructed
her constituents to "stay home except for essential activities."
Rogue
US Attorneys Coming to a City Near You? Rachael Rollins, the rogue prosecutor in Boston, may want to be the
United States attorney for the District of Massachusetts. According to news reports, Rollins says people working on the
Biden transition team have approached her about the position. It is irrelevant whether she is just playing the "look at
me, I'm important" political game or is serious about wanting the job. She could be the nation's first rogue U.S.
attorney. The more disturbing thought is the possibility that we might end up with several rogue U.S. attorneys in key
areas around the country. If you thought things were bad in cities with elected rogue prosecutors — and they
are — just imagine how crime rates will explode across the country if a President Joe Biden nominates, and the
Senate confirms, rogue U.S. attorneys.
Republicans,
Learn How to Fight Dirty or Keep Being Losers. As long as Republicans allow unreciprocated decency to stand in
the way of victory, they will be losers forever. And, right now, the leader of the losers is Attorney General William
Barr. In the weeks before Election Day, Barr reportedly instructed prosecutors and senior colleagues to prevent the
Department of Justice's (DoJ) investigation into Hunter Biden's brand of corruption and crony capitalism from leaking to the
public. His goal was to "keep the Justice Department out of campaign politics," although Biden's transgressions are
directly relevant to a presidential election featuring his father. Ultimately, Barr sat silent as the left-leaning
mainstream media disregarded the Hunter story and labeled Trump supporters as kooks, while social media's "woke" elites
censored it. Even as President-elect Joe Biden lied to defend his son, Barr refused to speak up.
Supreme Court
sides with Colorado church over COVID attendance caps. The Supreme Court on Tuesday [12/15/2020] sided with a
Colorado church challenging the state's capacity restrictions on houses of worship during the coronavirus pandemic, the
latest order from the high court, now with a 6-3 conservative majority, in favor of churches and synagogues seeking to hold
worship services during the ongoing crisis. In an order with three dissents, the high court tossed out an August
decision from the federal district court in Colorado that kept the attendance limits in place and sent the dispute back to
the lower courts for further consideration in light of its November order barring New York from enforcing capacity
restrictions at houses of worship.
Now
we know for sure that our judges and justices are abject cowards. The vote fraud that took place in Michigan,
Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada was monstrous and long planned. Election laws were surreptitiously
weakened by secret consent decrees (GA), mass mail-in ballots, Dominion vote machines programmed to flip votes, the creation
of tens of thousands of fake ballots, illegal alien voting, illegal drop boxes, get-out-the-vote campaigns in Democrat-heavy
districts paid for by the execrable Zuckerberg of Facebook infamy, the refusal to allow GOP observers, ballots trucked from
one state to another. The judges dismissed lawsuits in every court where one was filed by the Trump campaign or other
plaintiffs, seemingly without even considering the details. The Supreme Court justices surely all know what took place;
they can't have missed all the hearings at which witnesses to fraud testified and signed affidavits as to the truth of what
they observed. But the judges and justices were afraid. Now that the left seems to have successfully stolen the
election, they will certainly do it again. They have the permission of the SCOTUS.
Defense
attorney in Floyd case says prosecutors shared disorganized, duplicate evidence. A defense attorney for the
ex-Minneapolis police officer charged with murder in the death of George Floyd accused prosecutors of mishandling how they
share evidence with the defense — including burying important information in between irrelevant material,
providing duplicates of the same item and turning over thousands of pages of unrelated documents. Eric Nelson, who
represents Derek Chauvin, filed a motion and affidavit Monday [12/14/2020] accusing Attorney General Keith Ellison's office
of delaying his progress in Chauvin's case. "With every single round of discovery that has been disclosed there have
been numerous problems and issues involving the manner in which the state disclosed it," Nelson wrote. "...Substantive
evidence is often 'hay stacked' between other information."
Also posted
under obstructionism.
Cuomo releasing private
personnel documents of the woman who accused him of sexual harassment. [Thread reader] This is the man who
opened a corruption commission then closed it when the evidence led to him, he has a lot hide. Cuomo is a man who
renamed a bridge after his father with the intent to use it as a campaign boost with his name, even as his own CNN host
brother told the world he shouldn't because his dad would have hated it. Cuomo is a man who is sitting on billions in
funds meant for our starving public schools, ignoring a court order to distribute it to schools while handing tax cuts to his
Trump donors. Even COVID didn't change his mind. When Trump decided not to provide PPE, Cuomo chose twitter and
CNN cameras in a tough guy act and got nothing while other governors worked quietly to create a buyers coalition and cornered
the market to purchase PPE from under Trump successfully.
The
'kraken' is the sleeping giant now awakened within the GOP. [Scroll down] We're censored by big tech, smeared
in the media, mocked in popular culture, and endure malicious political prosecution, as in the cases of Michael Flynn and Kyle
Rittenhouse. On the other side, Hillary Clinton destroyed 30,000 emails, federal bureaucrats broke countless laws in the
Russian Collusion hoax, leftist radicals burned cities and attacked police, Obama weaponized the IRS against Republicans, and
illegally imposed DACA. The rules are clear: Democrats can break the law whenever they want. [...] Can you imagine
a country where Democrats can commit blatantly unconstitutional actions to enable voter fraud while simultaneously using the
same Constitution to insist Republicans have no legal grounds to challenge them? This is the America we're living in.
Courts
to Voters: Democrat Election Fraud Is 'Too Big to Fail'. The courts have spoken, one after another.
Some 74 million Americans have been denied our day in court. The Democrats' crime of stealing a presidential election
is too big to fail. Our play-it-safe judges don't want to venture into these enormous seas, full of sharks, without
precedent. They want to say in the safe spaces of the familiar. Stealing an election for city council is familiar
enough to be overturned by law. Stealing a presidential election by wholesale fraud is above the law. One might
think that somehow our laws are written too narrowly to catch the whale of Democrat fraud in the election, but for one thing:
the declarations from the bench that it is unthinkable to "upend an election." Our judges tell us that ruling fraudulent
ballots invalid would "disenfranchise" millions of voters. These are political statements. They are pusillanimous
statements. They are not legal statements.
Bill
Barr directly intervened to keep the Hunter Biden probe secret before the election. Attorney General Bill Barr
used the force of his office to instruct prosecutors investigating Hunter Biden not to take any steps that might cause the
probe to be publicly revealed in the run-up to the election. The directive, reported in the Wall Street Journal, was in
keeping with existing Justice Department policy against taking investigatory steps close to an election that might interfere
with it. Barr and his team took steps to 'insulate' the investigations, according to the report, even as President
Donald Trump repeatedly demanded a probe of his political rival's son.
Report:
Bill Barr Knew of Criminal Investigations into Biden Family in Spring and Worked to Keep It Quiet. A report
within the Wall Street Journal does not necessarily come as a surprise; however, it also does little to provide solace for
the lack of action by Attorney General Bill "Bondo" Barr. According to the article AG Barr has known about
at least two investigations related to the Biden family since early spring 2020, and he worked to keep them quiet.
The
Honor of the Legal Profession. [Scroll down] Anyone who reads the complaint filed by Texas (and rejected
by the Supreme Court) must conclude that there are serious reasons to believe that this election was characterized by massive
fraud in certain swing states and that this fraud was prepared and executed by partisan party operatives who used litigation
to erode mechanisms of ballot security and control of the counting to consummate the win. Note that I do not claim that
the evidence is conclusive, though I personally think it overwhelming. I use the softer "reason to believe", which
means only that it needs investigation. A legal establishment dedicated to upholding process values would regard itself
as honor-bound to demand an investigation of these charges. [...] This is not the reaction of the real legal establishment,
which is demanding not just that the charges not be investigated, but that any lawyer who represents the president be damned.
AG
William Barr reportedly hid two federal probes into Hunter Biden for months. Attorney General William Barr knew
about two contemporaneous federal investigations into Hunter Biden for months — and worked to keep them from the
public ahead of the election, according to a new report. The nation's top law enforcement official avoided providing
information about the probes to Republicans in Congress without explanation, a person familiar with the matter told the Wall
Street Journal. One of the investigations was made public this week, when the 50-year-old son of President-elect Joe
Biden disclosed on Wednesday that he was being probed for possible tax fraud.
Congressional
Republicans Are Furious With Bill Barr, and They Are Right to Be. A new report is out detailing just how
furious Congressional Republicans are over Bill Barr hiding the Hunter Biden investigation. According to The Daily
Caller, Barr knew about the investigation months ago (which also leaves the question open as to why he didn't know years
ago). Instead of allowing the voters to be made aware of such a monumental development prior to the election, the DOJ paused
the investigation and refused to confirm it existed. [...] Barr knew about this in the spring but didn't tell the President,
nor any members of Congress that would usually be kept abreast of such a high profile investigation into the son of a
presidential candidate. Further, Barr allowed the investigation to cease during the election season despite the fact
that such steps were not taken for the Hillary Clinton, nor Donald Trump investigations during 2016. Why did Joe Biden
deserve this kind of protection? And how was it fair to the electorate to not give them all the facts?
Confirmed:
Barr kept Hunter Biden probe a secret until after Election Day. Someone on Twitter said last night that this is
the most ethical thing Barr has done as Attorney General and he's probably going to get fired for it. Which would make
this administration two for two in dispatching AGs for the crime of behaving ethically. I'll be a little surprised if
he survives the day. Trump was already thinking of firing him. Now he has confirmation from the WSJ that Barr
could have revealed that Hunter Biden was under federal investigation at any time before the election — and chose
not to.
The
Governmental Accounting Standards Board: Fraud Hidden in Plain Sight. All 50 states are experiencing
revenue shortfalls due to declines in sales taxes, gas taxes, and licensing fees, not to mention the myriad other ways the
government gleans revenue on a daily basis. For many states, actual revenue will fall short of revenue projections,
which were made before the pandemic. In fact, 22 states will end the current year with deficits exceeding
10 percent of total revenue. However, despite these alarming figures, many states are claiming they will end the
year with a budget surplus. A budget surplus in a year when almost every American not named Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk has
had to tighten their belts more than a starving artist. How is this possible? The answer is in plain sight but
clouded by a dense fog of fuzzy math. It is called the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) and is the single
worst display of accounting practices since the Enron debacle.
As
Lockdowns Kill Businesses in California and New York the Politicians Ensure that Hollywood Is Thriving. Recently entertainer
Seth MacFarlane made a quiet announcement that his sci-fi space satire television show "The Orville" was going back into production.
This is a somewhat unsettling announcement for a couple of reasons. For one, over the past months Seth had been a loud proponent of
shutdowns, quarantines, and basically any limitations done in the name of safety. We can guess that the virus has been scientifically
shown to avoid television productions. The other issue is that as Seth's show ramps back up California's Governor Gavin Newsom has
imposed tougher lockdown standards on citizens and businesses, as well as instilling a curfew. However, for this new round of clamps
placed on the public, Newsom has seen fit to grant Hollywood an exemption from his lockdown, declaring that industry as "essential."
It becomes another example of politicians freeing up the studios from restrictions; one class of elites favoring another class of elites.
When
Whistleblowers Are Treated Like Criminals. [Bradley] Birkenfeld is a whistleblower, someone who exposes
corruption in either government or the business world that cost taxpayers a fortune. Through information from
Birkenfeld, a former wealth manager at UBS in Switzerland, the federal government was able to recover "$780 million dollars
in civil fines and penalties paid by UBS bank, and over $25 billion dollars in collections from U.S. taxpayers who had
illegally held 'undeclared" offshore accounts in Switzerland and other countries," according to the National Whistleblower
Center. That's a lot of money, so you'd think the federal government would've been very grateful to Mr. Birkenfeld.
Biden: The
China Candidate. There's a buzz going round about a lecture delivered by a Chinese economics professor, Di
Dongsheng, at Renmin University in Beijing. Tucker Carlson did a monologue with some clips from a video of Professor
Di's presentation. [Followed by (apparently) the complete transcript of the Professor's speech.]
Video
Of Chinese Economics Prof With Ties To Gov Explains Why They Had To Get Rid Of Trump, Chinese Media Deleted Video! Tucker Carlson just
blew the lid off of the disturbing ties between top levels of the US government, Wall Street, and China. Excerpts of remarks by Di Dongsheng,
associate dean, School of International Relations at Renmin University of China on Nov 28, 2020 in Shanghai on the television program "The
Answers." The topic for a panel discussion was "Will China's Opening Up in the Financial Sector Attract Wall Street Wolves?" The Chinese
government deleted the video but not before Inconvenient Truths by Jennifer Zeng was able to capture it. [Video clip]
Tucker
Carlson's Monologue on a Chinese Professor's Recent Speech Should Terrify You. In case you missed it, Tucker
Carlson opened his show last night [12/7/2020] with a shocking video showing a Chinese professor of economics giving a speech
about the country's decades-old activities in the United States. He followed up with commentary from China expert
Gordon Chang and current Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe. The complete segment on Tucker Carlson
tonight is about eight minutes long, but it is well worth a watch. [...] According to Carlson, the talk included references
to a Chinese agent working as a vice president in a top Wall Street firm that was not named for fear of creating political
trouble. The professor also went on at length about an American who now has dual citizenship in China. The
professor asserts this agent helped the CCP with a propaganda operation in Washington, D.C., in 2015.
Justin
Amash Says Members Of Congress Have 'No Idea' Who Is Writing Legislation. Outgoing Michigan Rep. Justin
Amash claimed on Sunday evening that members of Congress are not aware of who is writing the legislation that they vote
on. "Legislation used to be crafted by legislators, not 'negotiators,'" he tweeted. "The public needs to know
that members of Congress have no idea who the hell is writing our legislation. It's certainly not us."
Oregon
OSHA Can't Prove Salon Owner Is an Employer, Proceeds With $14k Fine Anyway. In an exclusive interview with PJ
Media, salon owner Lindsey Graham, of Salem, Ore., said that she had a hearing with Oregon's Occupational Safety and Health
Agency (OSHA) in her ongoing fight against fines for reopening Glamour Salon. OSHA fined her $14,000 for creating an
unsafe work environment, despite being unable to prove that she has employees. As a salon owner, she leases stations to
hairdressers who qualify as independent contractors. Despite having no proof, OSHA said they would fine her anyway.
Government
officials' coronavirus hypocrisy has created another public crisis. Multiple reports in just the past week have
revealed blatant acts of hypocrisy committed by leaders who would like to live by a different set of rules than their
constituents. In California, for example, Gov. Gavin Newsom was caught attending an indoor birthday party at a fancy
French restaurant in the Bay Area after discouraging Californians from gathering with groups of more than 10 people.
A few days later, it was reported that San Francisco Mayor London Breed attended a similar event at the same restaurant, even
though she had urged city residents not to mingle with people outside their immediate household. And, perhaps worst of all,
Steve Adler, the mayor of Austin, Texas, posted a video last month urging residents to "stay home if you can" to prevent the
spread of the virus. He conveniently failed to mention that he filmed the video from his timeshare in Cabo, Mexico, where
he was vacationing with several members of his immediate and extended family — having traveled there with a large
group on a private jet.
Trump
campaign charges 'not a single' witness interviewed by DOJ. President Donald Trump's campaign on Dec. 1 fired
back at Attorney General William Barr after the nation's top law enforcement official reportedly claimed that officials
haven't seen evidence of widespread election fraud. "With all due respect to the Attorney General, there hasn't been
any semblance of a Department of Justice investigation," Rudy Giuliani, a Trump lawyer, and Jenna Ellis, a Trump campaign
attorney, said in a joint statement. "We have gathered ample evidence of illegal voting in at least six states, which
they have not examined. We have many witnesses swearing under oath they saw crimes being committed in connection with
voter fraud. "As far as we know, not a single one has been interviewed by the DOJ. The Justice Department also
hasn't audited any voting machines or used their subpoena powers to determine the truth.
Democrat
hypocrites are undermining COVID with 'Do as I say, not as I do' attitude. As the nation tires of quarantines,
boredom and loneliness, the same politicians who find glee in slapping wrists and dooming small businesses regularly break
the rules, in letter and in spirit, when they want to. California Gov. Gavin Newsom dining maskless and indoors
with lobbyists at the tony French Laundry restaurant the same week he warned against Thanksgiving gatherings. Chicago
Mayor Lori Lightfoot having her hair done and joining in a riotous Joe Biden victory celebration in violation of her own
restrictions — then having the gall to call her actions "essential activities." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
unmasked at a hair salon that wasn't even supposed to be open, even as she decried President Trump's reluctance to wear a
mask — then claiming she'd been entrapped.
Rules
for thee not for me: Chicago mayor's security team gets traffic fines dismissed. We already knew Chicago
Mayor Lori Lightfoot doesn't like her own rules. She was one of the first elected officials to fall victim to lockdown
hypocrisy after getting her hair done shortly after she recorded a PSA urging Chicagoans to follow Illinois' restrictions on
nonessential businesses, including not getting their hair done. [...] It turns out it's not just lockdown rules she thinks
are worth breaking, either. According to a Monday report in the Chicago Tribune, Lightfoot's security detail got a pass
on multiple traffic violations, with city officials dismissing them. Lightfoot became mayor of Chicago in May 2019.
Since then, her security detail has been issued 13 citations. Ten of those tickets, all involving speed and red-light
camera infractions, were dismissed by city officials.
L.A.
Supervisor Sheila Kuehl Dines at Outdoor Restaurant After Voting to Ban Outdoor Dining. Los Angeles County
Suprevisor Sheila Kuehl reportedly dined at an outdoor restaurant in Santa Monica, hours after casting a decisive vote to ban
outdoor dining in the county. [...] Los Angeles County has shut down outdoor dining for three weeks, effective Nov. 25.
The county, and the state, are experiencing a coronavirus spike. Fellow supervisor Janice Hahn, who voted against the
outdoor dining ban, told KTTV's Elex Michaelson that the danger of public officials doing what they have told constituents
not to do means that they are "beginning to lose the trust of the public." She said there was not sufficient scientific
evidence to support the ban on outdoor dining, given the economic cost before the holidays.
The Editor says...
It seems a little like insider trading, when a politician goes out for a nice sit-down meal in a restaurant,
knowing there is about to be a county-wide ban on such activities.
Hypocritical
dining-out LA County supervisor Sheila Kuehl is also part of federal corruption investigation. By now, you
probably are familiar with the hypocrisy of Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, who went out for a meal at her
favorite restaurant hours after voting to ban outdoor dining at restaurants, after stating that outdoor dining is: "...a
most dangerous situation" over what she described as a risk of tables of unmasked patrons potentially exposing their servers
to the coronavirus. "This is a serious health emergency and we must take it seriously," Kuehl said. [...] Obviously,
she doesn't really believe she was exposing herself or anyone else to danger. Supervisor Kuehl is 78 years old and
obese, placing herself at high risk for Covid 19, so if "appropriate precautions" are good enough to allow her to dine
outside at a restaurant, why shouldn't the vast majority of the population at less risk than she be allowed to do so?
But to get a sense of the character of Supervisor Kuehl, take a brief look at another scandal, currently under federal
investigation, in which she played an apparently central role.
Another
Democrat is caught violating the rules she imposes on others. Every closed restaurant represents several
people's lives going down the drain. The owner who sank all of his money in the restaurant, the employees who worked
there, the suppliers who were dependent on its custom, and the surrounding stores who counted on the foot traffic it
brought — all of it's gone. And I might add, there's no reason to believe that these horrific losses made a
damned bit of difference to the course of a virus that is relentlessly working its way through the population. While
the people have suffered, the politicians imposing this suffering, like European royalty of old, have flaunted their special
status. Denver's mayor, Michael Hancock, flew to his family within 30 minutes of telling Denver citizens to stay home
for Thanksgiving. Andrew Cuomo, having reinstated the lockdown across New York, boasted about his family coming home
for Thanksgiving. Illinois's Governor J.B. Pritzker, another Democrat millionaire, was happy to see his family travel
during the height of the spring lockdown. Pennsylvania's health secretary, "Rachel" Levine, who leftists pretend is not
a mentally ill man telling people he's a woman, forced sick people into nursing homes in May, even as he secretly removed his
own mother.
Fellow
Republicans file articles of impeachment against Ohio governor. Several GOP state lawmakers have filed 12 articles
of impeachment against Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, over their fellow Republican's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. The
articles, which were filed by Rep. John Becker, accuse Mr. DeWine of numerous abuses of power in the past several months,
including threats to veto a bill to limit the governor's emergency powers. "Governor DeWine's mismanagement, malfeasance,
misfeasance, abuse of power, and other crimes include, but are not limited to, meddling in the conduct of a presidential primary
election, arbitrarily closing and placing curfews on certain businesses, while allowing other businesses to remain open. He
weaponized the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation to bully and harass businesses and the people; to enforce a statewide mask
mandate and other controversial measures of dubious 'value,' making Ohio a hostile work environment," Mr. Becker said in a
statement reported by WTVG-13, the Toledo ABC affiliate.
Poll
watcher witness says feds showed up at door, made her feel like a criminal after fraud testimony. Amid all the
inquiries into where Attorney General Bill Barr has been in the face of voter fraud allegations, there has been a sighting of
federal agents — the question is, what were they investigating? Leah Hoopes, a Republican poll watcher on
Election Day in the state of Pennsylvania, dropped what's being reported as a "bombshell," which is that special agents from
the Justice Department paid her a visit at home after she testified before the Senate last week. Hoopes testified that
massive voter fraud may have taken place in Delaware County, Pa., and she appeared on Steve Bannon's podcast "War Room:
Pandemic" on Monday to talk about "special agents from the Attorney General's office showing up at my front door just for
speaking the truth."
Thankful
for the Rights That Democrats Want to Take Away. This ungodly Chinese Bat Flu has brought out the worst in a
lot of people, most of them Democrat elected officials. There have been some Republican transgressors as well, but the
majority of the bad actors have been liberal leaders in traditionally liberal states and cities. Basic rights have been
getting trampled upon in the name of public health. Yesterday [11/25/2020], Stacey wrote about the latest egregious
overreach: New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is placing law-enforcement COVID checkpoints around the city, giving it a Cold
War East Berlin feeling just in time for the holidays. Here in Arizona, we haven't been subjected to a third job-killing,
pointless lockdown... yet. For that I am most grateful.
Go
Ahead and Celebrate Thanksgiving. Minnesota is one of a number of states that are living under what amounts to
martial law. Our proto-fascist dictator Tim Walz, in his latest edict, purports to ban traditional Thanksgiving
get-togethers: ["]Saturday, Nov. 21 through Friday, Dec. 18, Executive Order 20-99 requires all Minnesotans to:
• Limit social gatherings to one household. • Not gather outside of your
household. • Postpone all celebrations, events, receptions, and parties, including any social
gatherings for weddings and funerals.["] So it is "illegal" for me to invite any of my four kids to Thanksgiving
dinner. Better send the heat, Timmy, because I have no intention of complying with your grotesque order. For a
while, Governor Walz told us he was "following the science," and his dictatorial orders were required by "the data." That
pretense has been abandoned, as Scott reported, with Walz now saying, pathetically: "It's not about numbers. It's
not about data. It's about neighborliness." So one naturally wonders: is there any rational basis for Walz,
and like-minded governors, to purport to ban Thanksgiving dinners?
I
am having a nightmare, and I can't wake up. There is some good news today, but the nightmarish dimensions of
the problems facing the American Republic are also coming into horrifying focus. [...] The most important United States
attorney is the one heading the Washington, D.C. district. That important post is currently occupied by an acting U.S.
attorney named Michael R. Sherwin, not confirmed by the Senate. And he is declining to investigate an outrageous,
murderous attack on a sitting United States senator.
What's
Our 'Stamp Act'? When Will It Be Enough? What is it going to be for us? Which right is the one that finally becomes
intolerable for us? What will we finally take a stand to protect? Is it the right to self-defense? Is it the right to
raise our own children? To choose our own medical care? To own our own homes? What will our Stamp Act be?
Black
Female Police Chief in Virginia Fired After Aggressively Investigating and Prosecuting Mob Violence. This story
out of Virginia is really quite something. If I'm understanding it correctly, it very much appears as though the city's
(Black, female) police chief was placed on administrative leave and then fired as retaliation for her investigation and
attempted prosecution of criminal activity related to "Black Lives Matter" protests in the wake of George Floyd's
killing. The only attempt at a justification for the firing I've found is that perhaps she was overzealous in the
charges she pursued, and even that critique is disputable. There is also "an unspecified conflict of interest" that has
not been established or expounded upon. Her real supposed transgression, it would appear, is that she sought to hold
prominent people accountable for illegal acts — resulting in punishment for her because said prominent
people believe, apparently correctly, that they're above the law.
Michigan
Republicans Introduce Resolution To Impeach Gov. Whitmer. Three GOP House members in Michigan have
introduced House Resolution 324, which call for the impeachment of their tyrannical governor, Gretchen Whitmer, a woman who
has made it clear she will usurp power from the constituents she's supposed to serve and use it to oppress them with reckless
abandon. Folks, this is exactly why our system of government works the way it does. We have the right to decide
who governs over us, and if they go against our wishes and violate our God-given rights, it's our duty to toss these folks
out on the street.
The
Right to Worship Even in a Pandemic. New York's dictatorial governor, Andrew Cuomo, may have met his match. The
Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn is asking the Supreme Court of the United States to strike down Cuomo's Oct. 6 executive order
shutting down "houses of worship" in areas of Brooklyn and Queens, while allowing "essential" businesses, like pet stores, groceries and
big-box stores to stay open. Cuomo insists he's battling COVID-19. The Diocese says Cuomo's making a value judgment that going
to Target is "essential" but taking communion isn't. Truth is, for devout communicants who are already suffering social isolation
during the pandemic, finding the church doors closed can be soul crushing. Before Cuomo's executive order, churches were already
following safety precautions including roping off every other pew, requiring masks and urging social distancing. The executive
order disregarded that and capped attendance at 10 people — even for large churches with a capacity of 1,200.
Sounds arbitrary. Where's the science here?
Have too many people over for Thanksgiving
in Oregon go to jail, but no sweat if you riot. Some lawmakers are criticizing Oregon's limits on group
activities so close to the Thanksgiving holiday while proponents of the measures stay quiet on the nightly riots in Portland
involving hundreds of people. Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, ordered a two-week freeze that includes limiting indoor
and outdoor gatherings to no more than six people from no more than two households in an effort to curb the spread of the
coronavirus. "For the last eight months I have been asking Oregonians to follow the letter and the spirit of the law
and we have not chosen to engage law enforcement," Brown said Friday. "At this point in time, unfortunately, we have no
other option."
Black
Virginia police chief fired for charging prominent BLM vandals and public officials. Back on June 10th in
Portsmouth, Virginia, a large group of protesters decided to tear down and destroy a Confederate monument located in that
city. An investigation was launched, led by Portsmouth Police Chief Angela Greene. After collecting video from
the event and conducting interviews for two months, Greene announced in August that charges were being filed against
19 people who had been involved in the destruction. [...] You might think that would be pretty much the end of the story,
but it wasn't. Among those arrested was State Sen. Louise Lucas, several leaders of the local Black Lives Matter
movement, officials from the NAACP, and a member of the local school board. Since several crimes had obviously been
committed, you might think that Chief Greene (who is Black, by the way) would be lauded for holding all citizens, regardless
of their status accountable. You would be wrong, however. Howls of protest emerged not only from the community
but from elected officials. Yesterday the situation came to a head and Chief Greene was unceremoniously fired.
Virginia
Police Chief Fired After Charging Democrat Leaders with Felonies!. Portsmouth Police Chief Angela Greene was
fired Monday morning after being suspended from her position as Police Chief two months ago. Chief Green was suspended
on September 4th by the former city manager just weeks after she brought felony charges against Democrat State Senator Louise
Lucas and others in relation to protests and monument destruction that occurred June 8th. Senator Lucas was caught
on video instructing Portsmouth Police officers to stand down during the protests.
Pennsylvania
Democrat AG sparks outrage for saying Trump may have already lost [...] before the votes have even been counted. The
Attorney General of Pennsylvania Josh Shapiro, who is a Democrat, has sparked outrage after suggesting on Twitter that President
Trump may have lost the ability to win the crucial swing state, with 20 electoral votes, more than 24 hours before the polls
even close. 'If all the votes are added up in PA, Trump is going to lose,' Shapiro wrote on Twitter on Monday evening.
'That's why he's working overtime to subtract as many votes as possible from this process.' 'For the record, he's 0-6 against
us in court,' the attorney general continued. 'We've protected voting rights. Now, ignore the noise — vote!'
The Bidens:
A Delaware mafia. [Scroll down] Hunter was a principal in pay-to-play on a global scale. Recent
electronic and documented evidence confirms years of scuttlebutt that suggested that Hunter Biden, and Uncle Jim, were
trading and profiting on the name and office of the "big guy." Throughout, Joe claims he knew nothing of any family
pay-to-play hustles in Oman, Luxembourg, Romania, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Russia, Guatemala, and China. The ignorance
defense is an instant replay of Clinton family tactics; deny, deny, deny, and when denials are no longer plausible, depend on
Deep State Democrat Party Beltway hacks to cover or come to the rescue. [...] Withal, the Biden exposé is, by any
metric, a day late and a billion dollars short — at best a pyrrhic victory for critics. The Justice
Department and the FBI have had the goods on Biden for some time, yet official Washington is still mute and inert.
Inertia at justice is a symptom of a much larger problem: institutionalized federal double standards. A Republican
might be indicted by an ambiguous phone call while Democrats, like the Clintons and Bidens, get a pass on obvious felonies.
Why
Democrats must be kept out of power for at least a generation. California governor Gavin Newsom's recent
ridiculous Thanksgiving edicts call for gatherings to be restricted to only three households and held outside. Masks
are to be worn before and after eating and between bites. No singing or chanting is allowed and the meal is to last no
longer than two hours. These are just a few of the restrictions dreamed up to slow the spread of the Wuhan virus.
What these arbitrary proclamations illustrate is the mind of a power-hungry dictator. Under the pretense of keeping
people safe, governors like Newsom, Andrew Cuomo, J.B. Pritzker, Jay Inslee, Kate Brown, Gretchen Whitmer, and Tom Wolf have
curtailed the freedoms of Americans — and not just Americans, but the voters who elected these hack politicians in
good faith to serve the people. Democrat governors and mayors have taken the Wuhan virus, along with the rioting and
looting, and leveraged it into power that they will not easily relinquish if their behavior up to now is any
indication. They are long past fooling people with their faux compassion. You can pull the wool over Americans'
eyes for only so long before they become wise to you.
Keith
Ellison Wields Power to Restrict Freedom of Assembly of Political Opponents at Minnesota Trump Rally. The venue
for President Donald Trump's political rally in Minnesota scheduled for Friday will be restricted to only 250 people after
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison put pressure on the business owners of multiple locations. The rally was
initially planned at the Rochester airport, but Ellison's office demanded a "COVID preparedness plan" from officials from the
City of Rochester, Olmsted County, and the Rochester airport, as well as the Republican National Committee to ensure the
event was safe.
President
Trump Blasts Minnesota Governor and AG for Blocking Rally and Undermining First Amendment. President Trump
blasted Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and State AG Keith Ellison for their transparent political scheme to block his campaign
event. The same state officials who allowed Black Lives Matter to organize and march without restrictions under the
guise of political protest, are the same officials now limiting attendance to 250 people at Trump's rally in the
state. Meanwhile just outside the venue thousands of supporters defied the arbitrary state rule and gathered together
near the entrance. So President Trump stopped to talk to the media, blast the state officials, and then went to talk to
the assembled crowd that could not attend the rally. [Three video clips]
Even so, that's ten times the size of a Biden crowd.
Desperate
Dems limit attendance at Trump rally in Minnesota today to 250. Minnesota's 10 Electoral votes are up for
grabs, remarkable in a state that has not supported a GOP presidential candidate for almost half a century. So
desperate are the state's governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison (a former Black Muslim spokesman) —
both Democrats — that they have imposed an attendance cap of 250 people (how is this constitutional?) on today's
planned Trump rally at Rochester International Airport. [...] Officially, the campaign will admit only the first 250 people
who show up, but does anyone expect that thousands of other people who arrive will simply turn around and drive home?
Meet
Larry Krasner, the Rogue Prosecutor Wreaking Havoc in Philadelphia. "F--- the FOP [the Fraternal Order of
Police]" and "No good cops in a racist system!" Those are the sayings that supporters of Philadelphia District Attorney
Larry Krasner chanted at his election-night victory party two years ago. Did he tell them to stop? No.
Instead, he smiled approvingly. Krasner, a career criminal defense and civil rights attorney, who had sued the
Philadelphia Police Department dozens of times over the decades, ran to be Philadelphia's district attorney and received
almost $1.45 million in campaign spending from George Soros in the process. Unfortunately, Krasner is one of many
elected rogue prosecutors around the country who have usurped the legislative power by refusing to prosecute large categories
of crimes. By refusing to hold criminals to account, Krasner and his ilk abuse the power of their offices and harm
victims and their communities as a result.
L.A.
County Sends Health Department Workers To Fine Church That Sued Newsom. A Catholic church in Los Angeles County
is alleging that the local government dispatched two health department officials to harass them in retaliation for their
priest suing Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state officials. On Oct. 15, two health officials
showed up at Our Lady of the Angels Church in Arcadia, California, a congregation affiliated with the dissident Society of
St. Pius X. The officials watched approximately 11 parishioners leave the building from the sidewalk and then
cited them for holding indoor worship services in violation of COVID-19 restrictions, according to a copy of the citation
forwarded to The Daily Wire. The citation carried with it a $1,000 fine.
School
Threatens 12-Year-Old With Arrest for Allegedly Missing 90 Minutes of Zoom Class. The parents of a
seventh-grade boy received a letter from his school in Lafayette, California, warning of possible truancy charges if he
missed any more virtual class sessions. "Out of the blue, we got this letter," Mark Mastrov, the boy's father, told the
East Bay Times. "It said my son had missed classes and at the bottom, it referenced a state law which said
truants can go to jail for missing 90 minutes of class." Mastrov assumed the school had been sent in error, so he
called the school. He was shocked to learn that the authorities meant business: The law says any kid who misses
three full days of school or is tardy for a 30-minute class period on three separate occasions can face jail time.
'Banana
Republic of America'. We are living in times in which our leaders have intentionally cast doubt on the
court. Members of Congress have managed to earn the doubt of nearly 90% of America simply through childish partisan
behavior. They have intentionally cast doubt on the presidency through the abuse of the impeachment process.
Elected officials and the media have both cast doubt on law enforcement. It seems nearly everyone even tangentially
involved in politics now says or does whatever they think can win the moment regardless of the long-term consequences.
Bureaucrats in the state of Virginia have decided to ignore the law on the books regarding ballot postmarks. The state
legislature didn't change the law. No. Virginia administrative officials have simply made the choice to do
something different. On whose authority? No one has that authority under the law, yet they insist anyway. [...]
Stability no longer exists. The rules change day to day. The laws only apply sometimes and only to certain
people. Election results, the courts, the police and elected officials themselves are under a constant shadow of doubt.
Governor
Gretchen Whitmer: If You're Tired of Masks And Wish You Could Go Back to Church, Vote for Biden. Are you
sick of watching family-owned stores and businesses in your neighborhood fold because of reopening restrictions? Are
you saddened as you watch your favorite watering holes and restaurants close their doors for good, as unconstitutional
lockdowns drag past the 200-day mark of "15 days to slow the spread"? Have you had to move your family out of your state
just to find a school your child can attend? Do you find yourself wondering just when all this madness will end, and
how? Well, look no further. There's a solution on the horizon and it's a mere 15 days away. If you want
COVID and the ensuing restrictions to disappear forever, all you have to do is... Vote for Biden/Harris 2020. Don't shoot
the messenger. This logic came straight from the horse's mouth this past Sunday [10/18/2020] on "Meet the Press" —
the horse being Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and the mouth being one adorned with bright red lipstick and frothing with
Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Is
this another reason the FBI hid the Hunter Biden Laptop? It didn't surprise the informed, and understandably a
bit cynical, to hear that the FBI sat on Hunter Biden's laptop instead of seeking justice. The bureau was previously
involved in an illegal plot to take down Donald Trump, after all, and its Deep State elements would assuredly love to see Joe
Biden succeed him in January. So why would they reveal damning information on their establishment hope? Yet
suppressing Huntergate perhaps provided a secondary benefit: The information could be used against Biden once he was in
office. This wouldn't be anything new. It's believed that longtime, legendary FBI director J. Edgar Hoover used
"dirt files" on politicians for leverage; for one thing, it's said, this enabled him to remain bureau head for as long as he wished.
The
Gordian Knot Protecting Obamagate Secrets. Donald Trump and Republicans are furious that U.S. Attorney John
Durham has not brought indictments against senior people who spied on the president's campaign, lied repeatedly to judges in
order to do it, and based their intrusions on specious evidence, which they knew to be false — and had been
commissioned by the opposition political party. We know the broad outlines of this coordinated operation, but we still
don't know its full extent, all those involved, and what precise roles they played. Attorney General William Barr
promised major developments in this probe by late spring, then mid-summer, then Labor Day, and now sometime after the
election. If, as Republicans say (and the evidence seems to show), there was a systematic effort to weaponize federal
law enforcement and intelligence agencies for political purposes, the public has a compelling right to know. This
need-to-know is urgent because the Democrats' presidential nominee, Joe Biden, served as the second-highest ranking member of
the administration that conducted these acts.
Tyranny in Texas.
Some people go to jail because they break the law. Sylvia Gonzalez landed in a Texas slammer because she criticized her
local government. Now the 74-year-old retiree is fighting back, trying to bring accountability to a system that too
often lets public officials off the hook when they violate people's civil rights. Gonzalez's ordeal started with a
simple desire to help her community by serving on the Castle Hills City Council near San Antonio. She knocked on doors
and talked to more than 500 neighbors during her campaign, and what she heard strengthened her resolve to make a
difference. "They complained bitterly about the city," Gonzalez says. After winning her 2019 election and
becoming the first Hispanic councilwoman in city history, Gonzalez went to work. Her first act in office was to
champion a nonbinding citizens petition calling for the city manager's removal. Rather than taking notice of the public
discontent, however, the mayor and other political insiders attacked the messenger. They had Gonzalez arrested,
handcuffed, and jailed as part of a prolonged intimidation campaign.
9
Warning Signs of Democrat Radicalization. If you threaten strangers and destroy property in the name of Black
Lives Matter or Antifa, then local Democrat prosecutors will make sure you never answer for your crimes. If you
exercise your Second Amendment right to protect the lives of your family and secure your property, those same Democrat
prosecutors will threaten your liberty and future. If you riot in the name of "justice," then you are performing a
public service. If you seek spiritual salvation by attending church or synagogue, then you are a public health
threat. When Democrats are in office, there are two tiers of justice in America, one for protecting Democrats and one
for harassing Republicans. Former attorney general Eric Holder aptly articulated this reality when he argued that the
fight against Republicans is "not about principle" but about the "acquisition and use of power."
Russiagate
Hoax Mastermind Must Be Exposed. In the bureaucratic struggle to declassify Russiagate-related documents before
the Nov. 3 elections and help ensure they aren't buried forever, some valuable nuggets have just been partially unearthed by
the Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe. Like handwritten notes by then-CIA Director John Brennan.
During the summer of 2016, he briefed President Obama and top advisers that the agency learned of startling intelligence
about the Clinton campaign and Russia. [...] Yet many questions remain — such as who was the Russiagate Hoax
Mastermind alluded to by Brennan? Americans need to know. The smear campaign wasn't just a political dirty
trick. Nor was it proportionate to combat Trump supporters chanting "lock her up." No, the malicious lie was the
acorn from which the mighty oak grew — one that launched the crime wave of the century. Unprecedented and
wrongful surveillance of a presidential campaign. Then a prolonged stealth coup to overturn the election.
President Trump and over 50 associates were subjected to seemingly limitless investigations, Privacy Act violations, criminal
leaks, defamation and ruthlessly pursued by overzealous prosecutors, including numerous Obama and Clinton political donors.
State
Dept. officials [were] told they broke [the] law by monitoring Americans during [the] Ukraine scandal. State
Department officials were explicitly ordered in spring 2019 to stop tracking 13 prominent Americans' social media accounts
for information about the Joe Biden-Ukraine scandal because the monitoring violated federal law, according to emails that
were originally redacted to hide the concerns from the American public. "We are barred by law from actively monitoring
the accounts of American citizens in aggregate — and particularly from identifying and monitoring individual,
selected accounts," a State Department official wrote in an April 1, 2019 email to officials in Washington and the U.S.
embassy in Kiev[.] The unredacted emails, obtained by Just the News, raise new questions about the accuracy of State
Department officials' testimony during President Trump's impeachment proceedings. They also provide a window into how
the department used redactions in a Freedom of Information Act case to hide the potentially explosive information just weeks
before Election Day 2020.
Yet Another Grand Jury Defies the Fake
News Narrative. The rules of a grand jury are not like those of a regular courtroom. Only the prosecutor
is allowed to put on a case. No defense attorney is allowed in the room. One witness after another is brought in
and grilled by the prosecutor in front of the jury. There is no judge to protect the witness from being abused.
The witness has nowhere to turn for legal assistance. The prosecutor pummels him or her with tough questions, sometimes
insults and nasty remarks. The only brakes that prevent even worse abuse is that the experienced prosecutor knows the
limits, that if he or she gets too vicious then the grand jury may shift its sympathies to the battered witness. So the
prosecutor plays the grand jury, using tricks of the trade, ploys and psychological maneuvers that never would be allowed in
open court. But, again, there is no judge in the room to rein in the prosecutor. As day after day ensues, the
prosecutor becomes increasingly chummy with the members of the grand jury.
Tish
James' endless anti-Trump suits betray the AG's mission. As the chief legal officers of our states, attorneys
general possess a tremendous power to shape public opinion and make official decisions that can affect the outcomes of
cases. Regardless of party affiliation, when it comes to exercising the prosecutorial function of our offices, there
are certain rules that every attorney general agrees to — and certain lines that should never be crossed. We
should never weaponize our office for political gain, regardless of the situation, even when the sitting president of the
United States is a citizen of the state we serve. Unfortunately, some of my colleagues across the aisle have done just
that. During her campaign, New York Attorney General Letitia James threw out numerous vague and baseless allegations,
promising to harass and investigate President Trump's family and businesses that "may be engaged in illegal conduct."
Although Trump was duly elected, she claims he is an illegitimate president. This is nothing less than a gross abuse of
her office.
Catherine
Engelbrect and the Prestigious True The Vote Organization Release Powerful Warning on the Marxist Coup in 2020.
Catherine Engelbrecht is the Founder and President of True The Vote the nation's largest voters' rights group. [...] The
voter rights organization was so successful that True the Vote and its founder Catherine Engelbrecht, were targeted by top
federal government agencies including the IRS, DOJ, FBI, ATF, OSHA. Under the Obama Administration, those agencies launched
23 audits, investigations, and inquiries, persistently attacking the patriotic group. Engelbrecht and her organization
were harassed by the Obama IRS for months. The Obama IRS wanted to know Facebook posts, tweets and where Catherine
intended to speak.
Pelosi
doesn't rule out using impeachment as option to stop Trump Supreme Court pick. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on
Sunday would not rule out impeachment as an option to stop President Trump's U.S. Supreme Court pick from being confirmed to
the bench, saying Democrats will "use every arrow in our quiver" to block the eventual nominee. Just hours after it was
announced that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had passed away on Friday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell,
R-Ky., vowed that a Trump nominee to the Supreme Court to fill her vacancy "will receive a vote on the floor of the United
States Senate."
Politicians
on the Take? Politicians shut down businesses because of COVID-19. But the rules don't apply to
everyone. In San Francisco, gyms were forced to close, but government gyms stayed open. In my new video,
we see a Dallas woman being jailed for keeping her salon open and a New Jersey man getting arrested after working out
indoors. Ordinary people who break the rules get punished. But not House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Politicians
are special. Now, politicians have allowed more businesses to open. Dallas relaxed its rules for most
businesses a few months ago. But not for Dale Davenport's car wash. Dallas won't allow Dale to reopen because,
shortly before the epidemic, they decreed his car wash a "hub for drug sales and crime." His car wash is indeed in the
middle of a high-crime neighborhood, and many cities have laws that let them close a business if the owners conceal crime.
Michigan
residents get enough signatures to repeal Governor Whitmer's emergency powers, if certified. More than 400,000
Michigan residents have signed a petition that would trigger a statewide referendum on lockdown-loving Democrat
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's draconian emergency powers provided that state authorities determine that at least 340,000 of
the signatures turn out to be legitimate. During the pandemic, Gov. Whitmer has relied on a 1945 law to enforce
open-ended COVID-related restrictions, and the referendum outcome could mean the repeal of that mandate.
The left isn't fighting
against fascism, they are fighting FOR authoritarianism. [Thread reader] Leftist-run cities have shown
what happens when police and federal law enforcement are demonized and unsupported by elected leaders; when local leadership
can seize "emergency powers" — then pick and choose who to punish: rioters are exempt from lockdowns; you can
sing in the streets but not in churches; masks are required, but not for them. They can tell you what counts as a
substantive meal, essentially holding businesses hostage to their arbitrary and incoherent edicts: pot dispensaries and
large warehouse stores can open; gyms and restaurants cannot.
Senate
Intel Committee Refuses to Give GOP Senators Documents From Russia Investigation. Of all the tells that
have surfaced in the past four years, this is the biggest. This is the one that reveals just how corrupt and
duplicitous the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence really is. Do not pass over this information without pausing
and evaluating just how explosive this refusal is amid the largest, most corrupt scheme in political history. The
republican led Senate Intelligence Committee (SSCI) is refusing to provide documents to republican senators from their Russia
investigation. Citing archaic justification within senate parliamentary rules current Chairman Marco Rubio (R) and
Vice-Chairman Mark Warner are refusing to allow Senator Johnson and Senator Grassley to review the evidence the SSCI
assembled to create their report on Russian election interference. The reason and motives for the denial are simple,
yet the majority of Americans have no idea. The SSCI was the legislative entity, both republicans and democrats, who
participated in the unlawful effort to remove President Trump from office. The risk of exposure is exactly why Mitch
McConnell put Senator Marco Rubio on the committee as chairman to replace Richard Burr. The Senate was participating in
the soft-coup.
The
CDC blatantly violates a Trump order regarding Critical Race Theory. At the beginning of September, the
director of the Office of Management and Budget announced that, at President Trump's direction, all federal agencies would be
banned from imposing Critical Race Theory (CRT) on their employees. This was the right thing to do. CRT is pure
racism. While the KKK was obsessed with blacks and the Nazis were obsessed with Jews, CRT is obsessed with white
people. Teaching it at federal agencies is a shocking violation of the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Despite its unconstitutionality and the president's order, though, the CDC is planning to continue CRT training.
Christopher Rufo, who has become the point man for all of these stories about CRT training in the federal government,
discovered what he aptly called a "Bombshell." The CDC is going ahead with its plan — paid for with your
money — to impose a thirteen-week-long CRT training program on its employees. This an important story
because it is a nexus of the issues that brought Trump into the White House in 2016. It's the story of an out-of-control
federal agency that feels that no one — and certainly not the constitutional executive of the United
States — has any authority over it.
You Will Be Re-Educated. On September 4, 2020,
Russell Vought, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, sent a brief memo to the heads of the executive
departments and agencies of the federal government. Its purpose was straightforward: to end the practice by any federal
government agency of using training materials that promote "critical race theory" or "white privilege" or that "teaches or
suggests either (1) that the United States is either an inherently evil or racist country or (2) that any race or ethnicity
is inherently racist or evil." The memo advised that further guidance would be forthcoming but for the time being, agencies
should cease spending taxpayer dollars on such "propaganda training sessions." They have a difficult challenge ahead of
them. Critical race theory, often under the guise of bland "diversity training," has led to such taxpayer-sponsored
efforts as the U.S. Treasury Department's June 2020 training seminar "Difficult Conversations About Race in Troubling Times."
Attendees learned that "virtually all White people contribute to racism," and those who were white were told they needed to
acknowledge their "unconscious bias, White privilege, and White fragility." At Sandia National Laboratories, one of the
nation's premier nuclear-research facilities, the federal government paid a company called White Men as Full Diversity
Partners to "train" white male employees at Sandia in the damaging effects of "white male culture."
Border-wall
critic Gretchen Whitmer builds electrified fence around governor's mansion, hands taxpayers $1.1 million bill.
Controversial Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, once considered a frontrunner to become Democratic presidential nominee
Joe Biden's running mate, has authorized construction of a large fence around the governor's mansion in Lansing as part of a
$1.1 million security upgrade. The 8-foot-tall electrified fence is especially galling to Whitmer critics because she
has routinely criticized President Donald Trump's construction of a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border as a way to help
reduce illegal immigration and human trafficking. She has also questioned the effectiveness of security walls but is
nevertheless billing taxpayers for the expensive upgrade that will include electrified fencing because, according to local
media, Whitmer is fearful of threats.
Michigan
Supreme Court justice pushes back on Whitmer's emergency powers. A justice of the Michigan Supreme Court raised
pointed and repeated questions Wednesday [9/9/2020] about whether the 1945 emergency law relied on by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
was ever intended to deal with a health pandemic. Justice David Viviano pressed the issue during oral arguments, pointing
out that the Emergency Powers of Governor Act was enacted in the wake of Detroit's 1943 race riot, as it is known, and was
referenced in news reports at the time as providing the governor with the police powers needed to respond to such events
without having to declare martial law. The 1945 law says it is intended to "invest the governor with sufficiently broad
power of action in the exercise of the police power of the state."
'This
Investigation is a Sham': Judicial Watch President Slams John Durham for Going Easy on the Deep State. Trump
supporters are waiting with baited [sic] breath
for U.S. Attorney John Durham to come out with his explosive findings in regards to his investigation into the origins of the
Russian collusion probe against President Trump. Fitton said that he is inclined to believe disgraced former CIA
Director John Brennan when he says that he is not a person of interest in Durham's investigation. "I don't see grand
juries operating. I don't see a bunch of witnesses coming in. I don't see lawyers complaining about their clients
being brought in before Durham," Fitton said. He said that the Mueller investigation was run much more thoroughly than
Durham's so-called investigation, the goal of which appears to be protecting the deep state.
Growing
numbers of district attorneys are out to undermine the law. One reason for the surging, often protracted
violence in US cities is the rise of a host of progressive prosecutors who actually tilt against law and order. The
trend is most glaring in places known for their kooky left-wing politics, like Portland and San Francisco, but extreme
leftists have also taken over as district attorneys in cities like Chicago and Boston. Many owe big thanks for their
elections to funding from far-left fatcat George Soros. In Portland, violent "protests" have dragged on for months,
thanks to the idiocy of Mayor Ted Wheeler, who let hoodlums drive him out of his own condo — but also to Multnomah
County DA Mike Schmidt, who dropped charges against hundreds of people arrested for offenses like interfering with cops,
disorderly conduct, criminal trespass and rioting. Schmidt also made it harder to prosecute assaults on cops.
Macomb
County's Hackel, a Democrat, backs petition to limit Whitmer's emergency power. Macomb County Executive Mark
Hackel, the top Democrat in Michigan's third largest county, says he supports repealing the 1945 law that gives
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer the ability to declare a state of emergency and keep the declaration in place without input from
the GOP-controlled Legislature. The 1945 Emergency Powers of Governor Act gives one person, the governor, "endless
ability to create law," Hackel said in a Wednesday night interview. He said he was surprised there wasn't more
resistance to the Democratic governor's use of the 75-yer-old law to declare emergencies, which give her the ability act
unilaterally to shutter businesses or require masks be worn.
Democrats Mistake Orwell's 'Animal Farm' for
Instruction Manual. [Scroll down] However this worldwide hysteria was launched, its effects are now clearly observable all around us.
Just last night I was horrified to see a video of a young girl in Australia being choked by a police officer during her arrest for the crime of not wearing a mask in
public. We have all been treated for the past several months to the videos of police officers and sheriffs, or city employees sent by these Democratic
politicians to
[#1] Arrest a solitary man jogging on a beach, or surfing in the ocean.
[#2] Arrest a mother pushing her child on a swing set in a park
[#3] Weld shut the gates of a park so no one could enter
[#4] Arrest hairdressers and other business owners who defied shut down orders.
None of these radical Democratic mayors and governors campaigned on engaging in this kind of behavior. [...] They all hid their true nature
until they were established in office. Had they revealed they would engage in this kind of tyrannical behavior while they were candidates,
none of them would have been elected.
Portland
Police, FBI and U.S. DOJ Refuse to Arrest Antifa Murder Suspect Because He Supports Joe Biden and Black
Lives Matter. It's time to be brutally honest and face the enemy as a united nation. Trump supporter
Aaron "Jay" Danielson was murdered on the streets of Portland Oregon. Danielson's murder was caught on camera, and
everyone, including thousands of people who watch social media, know exactly who killed him, [...]. However, despite
everyone knowing exactly who carried out a politically motivated assassination, [the suspect] has not been arrested.
The Portland police, the FBI and the United States Department of Justice have not arrested him; and the only logical
conclusion to be gained from that reluctance is that [the] Antifa supporter [...] is also a supporter of Black Lives Matter
and Joe Biden. Therefore no-one does anything. When you accept this reality, it is only then that we can start
to fathom just how seriously screwed up the U.S. system of justice has become. If you support Trump you are a disposable
statistic; however, if you support the mob all efforts will be undertaken to protect you from the consequences of your own
violent action.
Americans
Must Oppose the Tyranny That Is Rapidly Spreading Across US. As Adolf Hitler rose to power, he took control of
churches, shut down businesses, encouraged neighbors to report each other, and created a public surveillance operation
system. If these actions sound familiar, they should. Public officials and bureaucrats are now putting their own
tyranny on full display, using the COVID-19 crisis to impose similar draconian tactics in the United States. While
Maryland officials keep the state in lockdown, they are encouraging citizens not only to snitch on one another for breaking
"prevention guidelines," but they are allowed to do so anonymously! The Maryland Emergency Management Agency, State
Police, and Department of Health announced a "COVID Prevention Line" available 24 hours a day as well as an email address
where citizens can "report situations of concern where prevention guidelines are being ignored and the potential for the
spread of COVID-19 is high." Reports will be followed up with a visit from the health department or law
enforcement. Since July 2, nearly 40 Anne Arundel County businesses and restaurants have received citations,
including my church. After an anonymous reporting on August 11, a female employee from the Anne Arundel County
Department of Health showed up at our Sunday morning service. The health official presented our associate pastor with a
citation and an "Order for Immediate Compliance."
Democrats
Have Proven They are Unworthy of Power. If a person or entity has proven to be abusive or irresponsible with
power, then it is the duty of the people, while freedom still prevails, to resist and to ensure that such a person or entity
is never entrusted with such power ever again or, at least until they have regained the confidence of the people. Such
is the case with today's Democrat party. [...] In six months, with the pandemic and nationwide riots, Democrat leaders have
revealed that their natural penchant is not for freedom, but tyranny. The past six months have shown that we are long
past the days of mere policy differences between the two political parties. Now our battle is against Democrats, a
party that has been usurped by the radical left, is literally for the preservation of America as founded. This election
is about whether America will remain a light of liberty or descend into the darkness of Soviet-style communism with elements
of Nazism. This is not hyperbole.
When
are Local and State Governments Illegitimate? This descent into hell is enabled by so-called progressive
Democrats in the aforesaid cities and Minneapolis, Chicago, New York, and wherever next. The progressives have
names: Ted Wheeler, Jenny Durkan, and Jacob Frey — all mayors — along with numerous council
members. And governors, Kate Brown, Jay Inslee, and Tim Walz. Add Lori Lightfoot, J.B. Pritzker, Bill de Blasio,
and Andrew Cuomo to the roster. All — all — have taken oaths of office to uphold the law
and attend to the public safety. They are glaringly derelict in their duties. These elected leaders aren't simply
craven, they're complicit in the violence and destruction that bedevils their cities. They see the mobs in the
streets. They witness the destruction. They are apprised of the violence. They know innocents are being
harmed. They know citizens cower behind locked doors. [...] Yet they permit the mayhem. They let the mobs
roam. They fiddle as their cities burn. These elected leaders are, in fact, aiding and abetting insurrections.
This
New York Diner's Response to Snitches and the Overzealous Health Department Will Make Your Day. The effects of
coronavirus mandates on small businesses, and especially restaurants, have been catastrophic. New York, outside of New
York City, went into "Phase 3" in July, and restaurants were able to open back up under severe restrictions, including
reduced capacity. Very few of them are doing well under this arrangement. [...] One diner in Seneca County, N.Y., has
had enough and took to social media to tell the public what the county is doing to them. The trouble started when a
snitch ate a meal at A.J.'s Family Diner and then called the health department to report too many people in the
establishment. This prompted the restaurant to post a notice telling people who are uncomfortable and living in fear to
stay out of their business. But the harassment had only just begun. The snitch prompted a full-scale inspection
by the health department that sent an inspector to rearrange all the tables and threaten a fine of $1000.
Arizona
Child Welfare Workers Caught Wearing 'Professional Kidnapper' T-Shirts. The Prescott Arizona Department of
Child Safety (DCS) is down to only one child-abuse investigator after having to fire at least eight others for wearing
t-shirts that say "Professional Kidnapper" on them and posting the photos on Facebook. The terminated child-welfare
employees had these shirts made up with the phrase "Do you know where your children are?" in bright pink as a "joke" that
no one who has battled DCS for custody of their children thought was funny.
New
DA in Portland admits he is 'old buddies' with an Antifa militant. Newly-elected District Attorney Mike
Schmidt, who refuses to prosecute Portland rioters, admits he is "old buddies" with an Antifa militant campaigning to defund
the police, abolish prisons, and demand reparations. [...] The hour-long July 21 interview with Schmidt is a first in the
series of "social justice leaders" features conducted by a self-described "Anti-Fascist" and "old time buddy" of Schmidt's,
social media personality Awkword. Awkword leads the Ten Demands for Justice movement, "a roadmap for the defunding and
then full abolition of police and prisons."
Despite
Constant Libel of Trump, I Trust the People. Ms. Harris has many critics among the 98% of Democrats who
did not support her candidacy for president. The Left is displeased with her performance as San Francisco's district
attorney and as attorney general of California: she always called for maximum sentences and condoned the widespread American
practice of prosecutors extorting or suborning inculpatory false evidence by threats of indictment if that evidence is not
forthcoming, and promises of immunity from prosecution for perjury if it is. Loyola law professor Lara Bazelon recently
accused Ms. Harris in the New York Times of having "fought tooth and nail to uphold wrongful convictions that had been
secured through official misconduct that included evidence tampering, false testimony, and the suppression of crucial
information." President Trump has made serious efforts at penal reform and sentence reduction for nonviolent
offenders. By contrast, Ms. Harris sent over 1,000 marijuana users to prison but acknowledged having tried it
herself. Ms. Harris's performance as a prosecutor clashes with the general current Democratic enthusiasm for
defunding and discouraging the police and turning a blind eye to urban vandalism, arson, and looting.
No
Need for a Conspiracy Theory. [Scroll down] There are two types of lobbyists. The first group are
often lawyers who act as "hired guns" for corporations. Their incomes depend on doing what the corporation wants, and
they have become rather good at it: Steven Brill made their activities one of his principal concerns in Tailspin.
"Retired" bureaucrats often find high-paying jobs in this sector. The second group includes lobbies established to
promote "causes": they have to set up an organization, get the word out, and raise funds. Once that's done, the
insiders have a vested interest in maintaining the organization; the organization may die if its supporters conclude that its
mission has been accomplished, so they can't ever admit that has happened. Exhibit A for this process on race:
Al Sharpton. The self-serving triangle is completed by members of Congress, who depend on these issues to garner votes.
Russia
Hoax: Are We All Being Played? Put Up or Shut Up. [Scroll down] I never realized how terrible
the deterioration inside the system had become until four years ago when I stumbled onto what was happening inside the FBI.
Those concerns were brought to my attention by former and current FBI agents, as well as numerous U.S. intelligence officials
aware of the failures inside their own agencies. But it never occurred to me when I first started looking into fired
FBI Director James Comey and his former side kick Deputy Director Andrew McCabe that the cultural corruption of these once
trusted American institutions was so vast. I've watched as Washington D.C. elites make promises to get to the bottom of
it and bring people to justice. They appear to make promises to the American people they never intended to keep.
Who will be held accountable for one of the most egregious abuses of power by bureaucrats in modern American political
history? Now I fear those who perpetuated this culture of corruption won't ever really be held accountable. These
elite bureaucrats will, however, throw the American people a bone. It's how they operate. They expect us to
accept it and then move on.
Selective enforcement:
Evidence
Is Mounting That Governor Cuomo Is Targeting Bars That Criticize Him for Suspension. A week after starting a
petition calling for Governor Andrew Cuomo to reverse New York's mandate requiring that a substantial amount of food must be
served with any alcohol purchase, Abby Ehmann, the owner of East Village dive bar Lucky, found out her liquor license was
suspended. "Ehmann says that two State Liquor Authority representatives visited the bar on Monday night at 8 p.m. to
observe if the bar's eight customers had ordered food with their drinks," according to Eater New York. "After the
visit, Ehmann received her first warning from the SLA on a piece of paper that did not list out the specific violations, she
says. Shortly afterward, and with no further warnings, Lucky's liquor license was suspended."
Outrage
as Manhattan's district attorney drops the felony charge against BLM leader. The Manhattan District Attorney
has dropped felony charges against the Black Lives Matter leader who was accused of assaulting a police officer, after an
angry crowd chased off an NYPD team sent to arrest the man. DA Cyrus Vance personally ordered the charges against
Derrick Ingram, 28, dropped from felony assault in the second degree to misdemeanor assault, a law enforcement source told
the New York Post. Ingram is accused of injuring a female cop by shouting directly in her ear with a bullhorn on June
14, resulting in the officer being hospitalized with temporary hearing damage.
Trump
urges churches to reopen, despite Dems who 'want to put churches out of business'. President Trump urged
governors to reopen churches and schools, saying they're "essential" services and should not remain shut down
indefinitely. "I think they should open the churches. It's up to the governors. But I'm recommending it,
you open the churches," Trump told the Catholic Telegraph. The President said churches can safely reopen as long as
attendees wear masks and social-distance. Trump said it's unfair to Christians that they're banned from going to
church, but Black Lives Matter protesters and left-wing rioters can gather by the tens of thousands — and
Democrats say nothing about the public-health dangers they pose.
Federal
Judge Rules Cuomo, De Blasio Exceeded Authority by Restricting Religious Services While Condoning Protests. A
federal judge on Friday [7/31/2020] ruled that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo violated the
Constitution by restricting religious services to stem the spread of the coronavirus while simultaneously condoning mass
protests that took place across the state. U.S. District Judge Gary Sharpe granted a preliminary injunction blocking
New York from enforcing its stringent coronavirus restrictions on religious services. The state's current restrictions
require houses of worship to operate at 25 percent capacity and later at 33 percent capacity when New York enters Phase Four
of its re-opening plan.
Who deserves a funeral?
No one would argue that Rep. John Lewis doesn't deserve a proper memorial. He was a civil rights icon and a
long-serving member of Congress who was beloved by his colleagues. In the middle of a pandemic, however, how do we
decide who gets the pomp and circumstance of a traditional burial and who has to watch their loved one go six feet under via
Zoom call? Funerals are important: they acknowledge the sanctity of life and allow friends and family to come together
to grieve their loss. [...] Yet politicians have decided that celebrity affords them the right to override the onerous
restrictions on funerals that so many average Americans have been forced to accept. Yes, Georgia is unique in that it
allows anyone to have a funeral. However, the governor's executive order prohibits gatherings of more than 50 people if
social distancing cannot be maintained. Photos of Lewis's funeral in Atlanta showed that many more than 50 people
attended and that social distancing was not maintained in parts of the church, nor during the burial outside.
Four
Months of Unprecedented Government Malfeasance. Over the last four months, Americans have lived through what is
arguably the most consequential period of government malfeasance in U.S. history. Public officials' overreaction to the
novel coronavirus put American cities into a coma; those same officials' passivity in the face of widespread rioting
threatens to deliver the coup de grâce. Together, these back-to-back governmental failures will
transform the American polity and cripple urban life for decades. Before store windows started shattering in the name
of racial justice, urban existence was already on life support, thanks to the coronavirus lockdowns.
No Holds Barred at the House Lynch
Session. [Scroll down] Most Americans do not know this, but by law a congressional representative is
permitted to say anything at a hearing, no matter how false, no matter how defamatory, and they cannot be sued for
perjury or defamation. It is like when former Sen. Harry Reid stood in the U.S. Senate chamber during the height
of the 2012 presidential race and falsely accused Mitt Romney of tax evasion. It was a lie, a slander — and
Reid knew it. But Reid also knew that, as long as he spoke his slander within the Senate chamber, he never could be
sued for the defamation. This unique protection is called the "Legislative Privilege," rooted in the Speech and Debate
Clause of the United States Constitution (Art. I, § 6, Cl. 1). By law, legislators may say
absolutely anything they want, and by law they cannot be sued or prosecuted for any of it, as long as they say it within the
chamber or otherwise as part of the legislative process. As an attorney of 26 years and a law professor of 16, who
practices and teaches this, I know about the legislative privilege. But few other Americans do.
Partisan
politics permeates AG Maura Healey's office. Attorney General Maura Healey has turned her office into a virtual
nonstop onslaught against President Trump, in the process elevating her own political aspirations on the backs of
taxpayers. Partisan politics has permeated the office of the state's top cop to an unprecedented level —
whether it's the scores of lawsuits she's filed against Trump or the pro-Democrat tweets put out by her press aides.
Healey has dropped any illusion of being fair and objective to the point of whether it's unclear she'd be an effective
advocate for a Republican looking for legal protections. Voters look at Healey now not as a tough prosecutor against
white collar crime but as an aspirant for higher office who can spout off Democratic talking points.
St. Louis prosecutor Kim
Gardner is engaged in a political prosecution. [Thread reader] The right to defend one's person, family, home
and property has deep roots in Missouri law. Self-defense is the central component of the right to keep & bear arms,
which receives the highest protection from the MO Constitution. MO statutes specifically authorize citizens to use
firearms to deter assailants & protect themselves, their families & homes from threatening or violent intruders. A
highly publicized criminal prosecution of citizens for exercising these fundamental freedoms threatens to intimidate & deter
law-abiding citizens from exercising their constitutional right of self defense. My job as AG is to protect the
fundamental rights of all Missourians, including the right to keep & bear arm in self defense of one's person and home.
This case casts an ominous shadow over those fundamental rights. The prosecution sends a powerful message to all
Missourians that they exercise their fundamental right to self defense at their peril. Missourians should not fear
exposure to criminal prosecution, even prison time, when they use firearms to defend themselves and their homes.
St
Louis prosecutor tampered with evidence to charge Mrs. McCloskey. St. Louis homeowners Mark and
Patricia McCloskey were charged with felony misuse of a firearm and a misdemeanor assault charge after waving guns at an
unruly mob of 'protesters' who stormed through their private community. The couple said they were frightened and feared
for their safety. Assistant Circuit Attorney Chris Hinckley stated in charging documents that the gun was "readily
capable of lethal use," referencing Mrs. McCloskey's handgun. However, her handgun was NOT "readily capable of
lethal use" at the time she used it to discourage the protesters. It was disabled by the couple so it could be used as
a prop. The corrupt prosecutor had it fixed so Mrs. McCloskey could be charged. Seriously, that's what they did.
'Equal
Justice': The Politicization of Prosecution. As she announced felony charges against the McCloskeys, St. Louis
prosecutor Kim Gardner noted something that most people missed: that she was elected to pursue "equal justice." What
exactly is "equal justice," and how is it distinguished from justice? "Equal justice" is a term used by neoleftist politicians
to alert their base of racial disparities in the criminal justice system, with the implication that "racial equity" must be actively
pursued. It is most commonly used by Soros-sponsored wolves in prosecutors' clothing. It is a political movement to
interject a race consideration component into the criminal justice system. There is even an Equal Justice Initiative organization,
a Soros-sponsored group that advertises itself as "committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United
States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in
American society." But what does race and "ending mass incarceration" have to do with charging a White suburban
couple, the McCloskeys? Why was the term "equal justice" relevant in this particular prosecution?
Democrat
Prosecutor Charges McCloskeys With Felonies After Using Guns To Defend Private Property. St. Louis Circuit
Attorney Kim Gardner, a Democrat, announced on Monday [7/20/2020] that she is charging the St. Louis couple who defended
their private property using firearms last month with felony unlawful use of a weapon. The couple is also reportedly
facing a fourth-degree misdemeanor assault charge. "Mark and Patricia McCloskey each are facing a single felony count
of unlawful use of a weapon — exhibiting," The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. "Charging documents
say he pointed an AR-15 rifle at protesters and she wielded a semiautomatic handgun, placing those protesters in fear of
injury."
The Editor says...
Violent protesters and rioters only respond to fear of injury. That's the language they use, and that's what they
understand. They don't listen. They don't reason. They don't have any regard for private property.
But they do recognize firearms.
Missouri
AG Files To Dismiss Charges Against McCloskeys: 'I Won't Stand By While Missouri Law Is Being Ignored'. On
Monday, following the news that St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, the city's top prosecutor, announced that Mark
and Patricia McCloskey, the couple who pointed guns at a crowd in front of their home, would be charged with felony unlawful
use of a weapon, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed a brief that would dismiss the charges. The brief stated
that Schmitt "respectfully requests that the Court dismiss this case at the earlier possible opportunity." "The right
to keep and bear arms is given the highest level of protection in our constitution and our laws, including the Castle
Doctrine, which provides broad rights to Missourians who are protecting their property and lives from those who wish to do
them harm," Schmitt told Fox News, adding, "Despite this, Circuit Attorney Gardner filed suit against the McCloskeys, who,
according to published reports, were defending their property and safety. As Missouri's Chief law enforcement officer,
I won't stand by while Missouri law is being ignored."
The Prosecution
Never Rests. In our constitutional system of checks and balances, ambition counteracts ambition. But what
happens when prosecutors are the most ambitious of all? [...] Of course, there are many kinds of prosecutorial
ambition. Some might be ambitious for lucrative law-firm partnership seats, or judicial appointments; others might
simply like sending a message to criminals that they are the toughest guy on the block. And others — surely
the vast majority — are simply ambitious to do the best possible job they can, using all the legal tools at their
disposal. But here is the problem: there are many tools — and few practical limits upon their use.
While a prosecutor can't put a defendant in jail without a judge, or a jury, or the defendant's own guilty plea, there
remains much that he or she can do to secure such convictions or plea bargains, or at least to make the defendant feel the
pain of the criminal process.
Hawley
calls for civil rights probe of prosecutor investigating gun-wielding St. Louis couple. Sen. Josh
Hawley (R-Mo.) called on the Justice Department to launch a civil rights investigation into St. Louis Circuit Attorney
Kimberly Gardner and her office after Gardner announced an investigation into a white couple who were seen on video
threatening Black Lives Matter protesters at gunpoint. In a letter to the Justice Department obtained by The Washington
Post, Hawley said that Gardner had established "a pattern of politically motivated prosecutorial decisions" during her time
as St. Louis's top city prosecutor. "The Second Amendment is not a second-class right. No family should
face the threat of harassment or malicious prosecution for exercising that right," he wrote to Attorney General William Barr.
De
Blasio Says BLM Protests Can Continue While Canceling All Other Large Events. New York City's Mayor Bill de
Blasio made some stunning remarks on CNN, declaring protests in the streets were perfectly acceptable while canceling other
large events through September. De Blasio joined CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Thursday evening [7/9/2020], discussing the
evolving pandemic and policy response by City Hall to mitigate the spread in the city. He said social justice warriors
were too important after months of protests have yet produced an outbreak in cases. "This is a historic moment of
change. We have to respect that but also say to people the kinds of gatherings we're used to, the parades, the
fairs — we just can't have that while we're focusing on health right now," de Blasio told Blitzer. Blitzer
then asks: What about protests? De Blasio responds: "This is a historic moment. We have to respect that."
Missouri AG calls out
St. Louis prosecutor, reveals history of politically motivated decisions. Missouri Attorney General Eric
Schmitt suggested Friday that St. Louis attorneys Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the couple who went viral for defending
their property from an encroaching mob, are being politically targeted. On Friday, law enforcement executed a warrant
against the McCloskeys and confiscated their firearms. Speaking on Fox News, Schmitt alleged that St. Louis
Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, the prosecutor handling the case, has a history of making politically motivated
decisions. "Under Missouri law, under the Castle Doctrine, an individual has really expansive authority to protect
their own lives, their home, and their property. I think the story here to watch here is the local prosecutor, Kim
Gardner," Schmitt said.
Tyranny
Without a Tyrant: The Deep State's Divide-and-Conquer Strategy Is Working. It must be said: the Black
Lives Matter protests have not helped. Inadvertently or intentionally, these protests — tinged with mob
violence, rampant incivility, intolerance, and an arrogant disdain for how an open marketplace of ideas can advance
freedom — have politicized what should never have been politicized: police brutality and the government's
ongoing assaults on our freedoms. [...] We may be worse off now than we were before. Suddenly, no one seems to be
talking about any of the egregious governmental abuses that are still wreaking havoc on our freedoms: police shootings
of unarmed individuals, invasive surveillance, roadside blood draws, roadside strip searches, SWAT team raids gone awry, the
military industrial complex's costly wars, pork barrel spending, pre-crime laws, civil asset forfeiture, fusion centers,
militarization, armed drones, smart policing carried out by AI robots, courts that march in lockstep with the police state,
schools that function as indoctrination centers, bureaucrats that keep the Deep State in power.
George
Soros-backed DA Charges Couple with 'Hate Crime' for Painting Over 'Black Lives Matter'. Contra Costa County,
California, District Attorney Diana Becton, who was backed by left-wing billionaire George Soros in 2018, has charged a
couple with a "hate crime" for painting over a "Black Lives Matter" mural on the road. In a press release Tuesday
afternoon, Becton's office announced that Martinez, California, residents Nichole Anderson and David Nelson were being
charged with three misdemeanors for their actions, including "violation of civil rights."
Opposing
Black Lives Matter Now Means Hate Crime Charges. America is going to a bad totalitarian place at an incredible
speed. ["]A California duo was charged with a hate crime for defacing a newly painted Black Lives Matter mural
outside of a courthouse, officials announced Tuesday.["] Painting over a political message you oppose is not a
hate crime. Authorities who support that message using hate crime regulations to suppress protests are blatantly using
the law to enforce their political affiliation. [...] This might at most be vandalism. It's not a hate crime.
There's no expression of hatred or hostility for black people. There is a rejection of Black Lives Matter, a political
movement. Conflating the political movement with black people and then treating hostility to BLM as a hate crime makes
opposition to a political movement into a crime. Treating it as one, while members of the racist Black Lives Matter
movement tear down statues and terrorize people, is enlisting local authorities in that same campaign of political terror,
punishing people for the political content of the vandalism, rather than for the act itself.
California
duo charged with hate crime for defacing Black Lives Matter mural. A California duo was charged with a hate
crime for defacing a newly painted Black Lives Matter mural outside of a courthouse, officials announced Tuesday [7/7/2020].
Nichole Anderson, 42, was filmed using a roller to cover part of the yellow letters with black paint on Saturday as her cohort,
53-year-old David Nelson, stood guard near the Wakefield Taylor Courthouse in Martinez, the Contra Costa District Attorney's
said. As Anderson painted within the lines, allowing the letters "B" and "L" to remain visible, Nelson told
onlookers: "we're sick of this narrative." "The narrative of police brutality, the narrative of oppression, the narrative
of racism," Nelson declared. "It's a lie." "I said no one wants Black Lives Matter here!" he added. "That's what
I said. All Lives Matter, you punk." The temporary mural, which a Martinez resident received a permit for, was
completed the same day the alleged vandals struck, authorities said.
The Editor says...
The whole premise of "black lives matter" is that
black lives matter more than any others. That's racism. And now we see that any attempt to combat this racism
will be met with hate crime prosecution. This is what lawyers are for. This is why we have trial by jury
available to all criminal defendants.
Gov
Newsom orders closing of Calif restaurants, wineries — but HIS remains open. In what is seen as a
major rollback, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered the closures of numerous businesses across 19 counties in
California to counter a surge in coronavirus cases. The order will be enforced for at least three weeks, and includes
restaurants, wineries and tasting rooms, movie theaters, family entertainment centers, zoos and museums, cardrooms, and bars,
Fox 26 reported. While a number of Central Valley counties are included, Napa County, where Gov. Newsom owns a
winery and tasting room is not among the counties affected and the business remains open as of the July 1, 2020 order,
according to the Fox affiliate.
The
Huge Law Enforcement Scandal that Cries Out for Justice. In the American Thinker (June 30), Jack Cashill offers
an eloquent plea for an Atticus Finch to take up the cause of George Zimmerman in suing those responsible for perpetrating
the Trayvon Hoax. There is another case, also in Florida, awaiting its Atticus Finch, the product of an earlier moral
panic, the now largely forgotten "mass sex abuse in daycare" hysteria. These cases, replete with lurid charges the
media mindlessly and breathlessly disseminated in the 1980s and '90s, are today widely recognized as a modern version of the
Salem witch trials of the 1690s, down to allegations of Satanic rituals by caregivers. Despite this, one victim remains
incarcerated. Frank Fuster has now served thirty-five years in prison for a crime not only that he did not commit, but
that never happened. His first parole hearing is scheduled an unbelievable 114 years from now — in March 2134.
Soros
Funded St. Louis Circuit Attorney Threatens Legal Action Against Property Owners Who Defended Themselves Against
Rampaging Mob. This is a great example why law-abiding citizens need to be very involved in local
elections. The husband and wife who defended themselves and protected their property from looters/protestors are now
being threatened by a Soros funded STL Circuit Attorney. Ms. Kimberly M Gardner is an activist within the legal
profession who has an expressed purpose to destroy property rights, advance the cause of a socialist society, and collapse
the legal system that allows citizens to protect themselves from the rampaging mob.
In Re: Michael T. Flynn, Petitioner.
For five decades as a courtroom lawyer, I have devoted an inordinate amount of time to humbling myself and stroking the egos
of federal and state judges while catering to their every whim and belief, no matter how mistaken, unfounded, or
unjustified. It's part of the job. The more successful you are at sucking up to the robed potentates on the
bench, the better it is for your clients. Although many times I have been tempted to tell a judge to shove it, my duty
to my client has held me back. While on occasion I have been held in contempt, fined, and — most
memorably — placed under arrest for speaking the truth, for the most part and my clients' welfare, I have kept my
mouth shut. It's never a fair fight. The judge holds the power and knows that lawyer and client are at his
mercy. In my experience, the more egocentric and mediocre the judge, the more inclined he is to be the courtroom bully
and to arbitrarily exercise his power free from the constraints of the substantive law and established procedure. And
when one of these mediocrities arrives at a patently illegal result, he will dismiss your pleas and objections with an
impatient wave of the hand or bang of the gavel.
New
York Governor Threatens Reopening Rollback over Street Drinking. New York's governor threatened to roll back
phased reopening plans Sunday after large crowds gathered outside bars in New York City in violation of coronavirus lockdown
guidelines. Andrew Cuomo said his office had received 25,000 complaints of reopening violations by businesses as New
Yorkers flocked to streets to enjoy a weekend of late spring sunshine.
Liberals
Still Think Obama Was the 'Best President Ever,' Here Are 14 Reasons Why That's Ridiculous. [#1] Unprecedented
abuse of power. Amazingly, liberals still pretend the IRS didn't improperly target conservative and tea party groups,
even though Lois Lerner, the former director of the IRS Exempt Organizations division at the time, admitted it
happened! Not only were tea party groups improperly targeted, according to documents obtained by Judicial Watch, but
the whole scheme was orchestrated out of Washington, D.C. There was also evidence of White House involvement. IRS
Commissioner Douglas Shulman was at the White House at least 157 times while the IRS was targeting tea party groups.
Even Obama's cabinet members didn't visit the White House that often. Some IRS employees even claimed that Obama himself
requested the crackdown on tea party groups. There was certainly ample reason to suspect coordination with the White
House. The IRS was also exchanging confidential taxpayer information with the White House the year Obama and Biden were
reelected. According to a scholarly study conducted by the American Enterprise Institute, suppression of the Tea Party
movement by Obama's IRS helped him get reelected.
Gathering
Is Essential — Unless You're Republican. Gov. Whitmer's tune on the right to assemble has
transformed, too. She was appalled to see people without masks and parents "handing things to children, bare-handed"
six weeks ago. The horror. "This kind of activity flies in the face of all of the best science," she scoffed,
threatening to punish the protesting plebeians with a shutdown extension. She expected their obedience. The
supposed science took a back seat last week when Whitmer kneeled in the street, shoulder to shoulder with activists, in
violation of her own rules. But that's nothing new. Her husband can non-essentially travel to their second home,
and name-drop his wife to try to cut to the front of the line and get their boat launched before Memorial Day weekend.
The Democratic mayor of Chicago can get a haircut, but you can't — you're not on TV. The Democratic governor
of Virginia can go to the beach without his mask, not even painted on. It's "dangerous" to protest, Nancy Pelosi says,
until she joins in.
Democrats,
Not Republicans, Protect Dirty Cops. Abuse and inequality — at the hands of American law
enforcement — comes in all forms. [...] Calls for police reform and accountability are happening on a bipartisan
basis. That has not been the case, however, when it comes to Obamagate. Democrats, led by the forked-tongue
Schiff, have spent the past three years defending, even justifying, unprecedented abuses by the nation's top law enforcement
chiefs related to their targeting of Donald Trump, his associates, and his family members. The Trump-related victims of
James Comey's FBI may not be black, they were unfairly targeted nevertheless. It was not race that motivated their
persecutors, nor was it any actual suspected wrongdoing. They were targeted because of their political views.
In
the History of Congress, the House Democrats' New Proxy Voting Is Radical. Much of Congress' work takes place
off the House or Senate floor. Committees even hold field hearings around the country, and members spend time in their
states or districts. But since the House and Senate were established in 1789, their members have shown up to take
official votes. No crisis ever has changed that commitment. Not when the Capitol was burned to the ground during
the War of 1812, not the Civil War, not the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, or even the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Nonetheless, on May 15, the House voted 217-189 to adopt House Resolution 965, which authorizes the speaker to designate a
period during which one member may cast a vote for, and even "record the presence of," up to 10 other members.
Stopping
Petty Tyrannies Is How We Beat the Serious Ones. [Scroll down] Americans are unlikely to tolerate, for
long, nonsensical rules or enforcement policies that impede their day-to-day lives. It was, after all, a long chain of
large and small abuses by governmental authorities that led to the creation of this country. And given the Constitution
and remarkable political system created from it, we have a great deal of power to end abusive laws quickly. Certainly,
some of the coronavirus lockdown measures have had more serious implications for civil liberties than simple park
closures. While our federal system gives broad power to states and local authorities to act in the way that best serves
their communities, it is still essential that Americans be wary of violations of the Constitution and their fundamental
rights. This important point was made by U.S. Attorney General William Barr, who directed U.S. attorneys in late April
to be on the lookout for violations of civil liberties by state and local governments.
Gretchen
Whitmer slips state money to leftist political operatives to spy on Michiganders, then lies about it. It's
pretty amazing how many negative activities gather around Michigan's hard-faced and ambitious Democratic governor, Gretchen
Whitmer. Besides her outrageous performance on the coronavirus crisis — banning sales of garden seeds,
seeding nursing homes with COVID-19 patients, forcing private dam operators to overfill their reservoir for greenie purposes,
causing two of them to burst — she's also a liar. We saw that clearly enough when her husband tried to put
himself at the front of the boating queue by citing his marriage to her — cronyism at its worst — and
she claimed that it was a joke. It was a story so egregiously bad that the only reason we didn't comment about it here
at American Thinker earlier is that we mistakenly thought the story was fake. Now there's the matter of Whitmer's
political corruption — succoring her political cronies at state expense to spy on Michiganders to beef up the
Democratic Party operation, which she's also lying about.
Comrade
Crazy — Governor Gretchen Whitmer Claims She is Being Victimized By Citizens of Michigan. Michigan
Governor Gretchen Whitmer addressed the issue of her husband attempting to use his position to get their personal boat
prepped and in the water prior to Memorial day so they could enjoy the holiday. The Michigan governor said her husband
was joking when he told the boat storage operator he was the husband of the governor and asked if that would move him up
in the line of requests. Additionally Governor Whitmer highlights how the citizens of Michigan are victimizing her;
including scary men who have surrounded her home while carrying "automatic weapons." Whitmer says the COVID-19 virus has
created an undue hardship on her and her family, and she is burdened by hurt feelings and wounded sensibilities.
Whitmer personifies what happens when left-wing moonbats are allowed to gain political power.
Whitmer
says husband's boat launch request was 'failed attempt at humor'. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer confirmed her
husband made "a failed attempt at humor" over the weekend after a comment he made to a docking company drew criticism from
conservatives. In a now-deleted Facebook post, Tad Dowker, owner of NorthShore Dock LLC, said a man called the company
a few days before Memorial Day weekend asking if he could put his boat in the water. According to Dowker's post, when
office staff said the company started working three weeks late so that was not going to happen, staff told him the caller
said, "I am the husband to the governor, will this make a difference?" The post said they were moved to the back of the
waiting list.
The Editor says...
This is a very common Democrat tactic: They will say or do something outrageous, and if there are any objections,
follow up a few days later with, "Can't you take a joke?"
Examples abound:
[1]
[2]
[3]
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[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
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A Plague
of Monsters. Criminal terrorists attacked us on 9/11, and nations of the world united to treat us all like
criminals and turn the fun and exciting world of air travel into an experience redolent of herding livestock to market.
Nineteen years later, a virus outbreak happens, and governments of the world — upon advice of the
experts — treat us like infected patients, demanding we quarantine ourselves and cease all economic and social
activities. Is this the first time democratic governments have quarantined people who were not sick?
I Am Criminal. Okay, what we really
need to do and more of us should recognize it, is to put an end to this nonsense. This government has bankrupted us by
their inability to set and abide by a budget. They have ensnared us in rules and regulations that bind us and has built
a governmental structure that had they passed the $3 Trillion dollar monstrosity that the Democrats called a "Stimulus bill"
that passed out of the House, ostensibly to provide relief from the coronavirus lockdown, the combined governments would have
been bigger than all of the private sector. Think about that for just one second. I had the occasion to meet an
Eastern European who had no bones about it, he proclaimed proudly "I am criminal." What he meant was that he was willing to
endure the penalty of disobedience to outlandish and often irrational laws. One must recognize that under rule of an
outlaw government, one willing to use terrorist tactics on its own people, tactics that create fear for a political gain,
disobedience is the ultimate declaration of freedom.
Gov.
Gretchen 'Karen' Whitmer in Hot Water Over Husband's Vacation Hypocrisy. Michigan's Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
has epitomized the political, draconian response to coronavirus imposed by some states. Just recently, she extended the
stay at home for Michigan until June 12th, forcing businesses to remain closed and people to not travel. This wasn't in
response to any scientific data, but appeared to just be retaliatory against recent protests of her actions. But now,
she's in a bit of hot water after it was revealed that not only was her husband looking to get their boat in the water for
Memorial Day, but that he asked for special treatment in the process.
It's Over. The
Resistance Has Won. [Scroll down] But ah! — conservatives exclaim: OBAMAGATE!
Perjury traps. Withheld evidence. Oval Office conspiracy meetings. Unmasking. Edited 302s.
Leaks, lies and more lies. And John Durham poised to blow things open and indict everyone in sight. Any day
now. Really. Get real. The deck is so stacked for The Resistance that Bill Barr still can't even get the
demonstrably wronged Michael Flynn off the hook. There's a reason no one's heard from Durham yet: corruption cases
are hard to make, and harder to win. Ask insufferable James Comey, insolent Andy McCabe and smug Peter Stzrok —
all indictment-free amid Everests of evidence. Tara Reade? Three words: Not. Going. Anywhere.
Listen carefully: nothing — nada, nix, zilch, zero, zip — will turn the tide on the "scandal" front
between now and November. The wheels of injustice grind too slowly.
Obamagate:
Of Course It Comes Back to Obama's Narcissism. For three years, the Trump administration attempted to find
their sea legs while actively being harassed and harried by Obama holdovers and self-dealing Republicans in the House and
Senate. None of this could have happened so easily had Congress provided oversight. Why would they want
oversight, though? It would expose themselves. It wasn't just Joe Biden's crackhead kid in Ukraine, after
all. Sens. John Kerry, John McCain, and, yes, Lindsey Graham, also had strange relationships there, too.
It's like Ukraine was one big money laundering scheme for political insiders. A lot of pols have a lot to hide, and
that's why this fiasco has gone on as long as it has. [...] The American system isn't equipped to handle this level of
injustice. Those who wait on justice likely wait in futility.
It
Won't Matter What Obama Knew (or When He Knew It). Even if we uncovered irrefutable evidence that Obama
personally hatched the conspiracy to undermine either the Trump campaign or his presidency, Obama will not be held to
account. From the perspective of justice, what Obama knew and when he knew it is totally irrelevant because nothing
will be done about it. The reason nothing will be done is that the elites of our society have decided how Obama must be
understood. His presidency has unique importance due to his status as the first nonwhite person to attain the
office. Symbolically, then, Obama is supposed to represent the decency of the American people and the moral progress
that we have made since the abolition of Jim Crow.
Clear and absent danger: why proxy voting violates the American
system. When House Democrats passed their $3 trillion coronavirus 'relief' package late last week, they also
jammed through a rules change on proxy voting that fundamentally transforms the nature of the House of Representatives and
junks centuries of tradition. Because of a change to House rules, members will now be able to submit their votes from
afar. They will not have to travel back to DC to vote: they can instead send their 'yea' or 'nay' to a colleague, who
will submit it on their behalf. One member can submit up to 10 votes at a time, meaning that the will of the House,
which normally takes 218 members in the chamber, could be determined with only 21 members physically present. The new
rule allows this distance voting for up to 45 days for any coronavirus-related emergency. It can be extended. Now
that the precedent has been set, expect it to be trotted out repeatedly as the House finds other reasons for members to
execute their constitutional responsibilities from their couches.
Brooklyn
Park Paints Circles on Grass to Force Public Into Social Distancing. I don't know if this is worse than the
pool noodle hats that a restaurant in Germany is asking people to wear, but it's close. A park in Brooklyn has painted
what looks like parking spots for humans on the grass six feet apart from one another to force the public to behave.
And they're doing it. [...] If this is the "new normal" I want nothing to do with it. I've adopted Ron Swanson's
attitude. I'll do what I want. And if the government tries to stop me, I'm calling my lawyer. This is out
of control. Are you going to sit in a little circle on the grass like a good social distancing sheep?
Forget
About Seeing Any Justice For Obamagate. Allow me to disabuse you of your naïve delusion that we still live
in a country with a justice system and break it to you that no one is going to jail for what was done to Flynn, or for the
unmasking business, or for the Russia hoax or, for that matter, for any of the corrupt Dem/foreigner collaborations
exemplified by the payoffs received by stripperphile and Bolivian folk medicine enthusiast Hoover Biden. No one.
Well, maybe Mike Flynn himself will. Since his judge is now making up the law as he goes along [...]
Requests
for N.J. public records rejected during coronavirus crisis as Murphy administration uses little-known law. In
2005, New Jersey enacted a sweeping law called the Emergency Health Powers Act, giving the governor greater authority to take
actions to protect Garden State residents during a health crisis. Gov. Phil Murphy has cited the statute
frequently the last two months as he's issued a series of orders to place the state in near-lockdown to fight the coronavirus
pandemic. But in an unexpected development, some government agencies in Murphy's administration have also cited the law
to reject requests from media outlets seeking public records related to how the state has responded to an outbreak that has
killed more than 10,000 residents and caused widespread unemployment. The ability to obtain records is one of the key
tools journalists, advocates, and everyday citizens wield to examine the inner workings of government and discover how your
taxpayer dollars are being spent (or misspent).
News
Flash: DOJ Targeted Other Conservatives. A friend emailed me recently to say that on May 1st, in his
opening monologue, Tucker Carlson made the statement, "You don't want to live in a society where the most powerful agency in
government imprisons people it doesn't like. That is horrifying." Our friend lamented that he wishes there is someone
who could "get Steve's story to Tucker" because what happened to Flynn is so similar to what happened to Steve, my
husband — former pit bull Republican congressman from Texas. Numerous reports verify that Rep. Stockman
was quite a fierce critic of and whistle-blower on the Obama administration. As a result, he was pursued for four years
by the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the nonprofit division of the Internal Revenue Service
(IRS) — the very same corrupted team that went after Tea Party and other conservative nonprofit organizations
around 2012. The DOD took their story before four grand juries before they were even able to obtain an indictment.
Liberals
always lie. As covered in this blog earlier this week the Mayor of Chicago thinks the coronavirus is so
incredibly dangerous that people in her city should be locked in their homes against their will and businesses ordered
closed. In announcing her restrictions she actually cited haircuts as something she would not allow Chicagoans to do
because they might get the virus and die. Of course, we all know the mayor herself went out and got her hair cut and
then lashed out at her citizens for pointing out her hypocrisy. The main point here is she knew she wouldn't actually
get coronavirus if she got her haircut. That's just a BS story she told the people. Illinois governor
J. B. Pritzker has also taken heat for his own family heading off to Florida while he has ordinary citizens in his
state locked in their homes. He knew it wasn't dangerous for his family to leave the house or he wouldn't have let them,
presuming he loves his wife and children. That's just a lie to control everyone else.
Don't
Expect Losers of Shutdown to Sit Idly by Forever. Obedience to the law is bottomed on one of three
motives. First, people believe that the law is proper and just, and therefore it is their civic duty to follow its
dictates. Second, people expect that obedience to the law will provide them benefits that they cannot otherwise
enjoy. Third, people fear that disobedience to the law will impose costs upon them that they can avoid if they follow
the rules. These three motives often reinforce one another. [...] Far and away, the most important motive for obedience
to the law is a conviction that it is just, or at least the regime that promulgated it is just. This is what makes the
law, for the most part, self-enforcing. It keeps the government from having to impose draconian restrictions upon
violations, as well as creating a massive police state to monitor public behavior. This is one of the main differences
between the United States and communist dictatorships.
I
Helped Write FISA. Let's Destroy It. Circa March 2016, as it appeared that Donald Trump would be the Republican
Party's presidential nominee in the forthcoming election, someone with White House authority — we do not yet know
who or through what channel — directed the National Security Agency electronically to surveil communications in
and out of Trump's campaign headquarters in New York's Trump Tower. At the same time, the CIA and FBI were vectoring
longstanding CIA assets, including Stefan Halper in Britain and Joseph Mifsud in Italy as well as Australia's Alexander
Downer not so much to gather information about low-level Trump advisers' contacts with the Russians, but to provide pretexts
for further surveillance of Trump and, above all, for press stories implicating Trump with Russia. By July 2016, the
FBI and CIA had encompassed the Trump campaign in formal counterintelligence and criminal investigations, while shopping
suggestive allegations to the press. The so-called Steele dossier, alleging a host of details, some lurid, all false,
was part of this classic political agitprop. This effort was the product of a homogeneous mixture of persons official
and officious, including John Brennan and James Comey, directors of the CIA and FBI, respectively, James Clapper, director of
National Intelligence, along with some of the highest officials of these agencies, of the Department of Justice and of
State. These people are related to one another socially, politically, financially, professionally, maritally and
extra-maritally. They served Democratic President Barack Obama while furthering the election of his chosen Democrat
successor, Hillary Clinton. The notion that they acted without at least his tacit approval is not worth a second thought.
Legally
Conflicted Senate Intel Committee Presents Another Defense of Intelligence Corruption. Foolishness and betrayal
of our country have served to reveal dangers within our present condition. Misplaced corrective action, regardless of
intent, is neither safe nor wise. The intelligence apparatus was weaponized against our candidate by those who
controlled the levers of government. That said, today's SSCI defense of political corruption is infuriating.
Pennsylvania
Business Owner Says They Are Being 'Unconstitutionally Closed Down'. A business owner attending the protest at
the Pennsylvania State Capitol on Monday [4/20/2020] told Breitbart News that businesses are "unjustifiably" and "unconstitutionally"
closed down as a result of the drastic measures taken by local officials to combat the Chinese coronavirus. Pennsylvania resident
Chris Miller, owner of the Scranton Golf Center, told Breitbart News on Monday that his business has been closed for four weeks as a
result of the shutdown. [Video clip]
Easter wouldn't do it but...
Will
Ramadan force an end to the lockdown? As the Muslim celebration of Ramadan arrives (April 23 to May 23),
many of the faithful will expect to attend worship services at their local mosques. Will local and state governments treat
Muslim worshipers at Ramadan the same as they treated Christian worshipers at Easter? Will officials arrest imams for holding
services as they did to a Christian pastor in Tampa? How likely is it that Kentucky officials will sprinkle nails in mosque
parking lots and take license plate numbers of worshipers? Will NYC mayor Bill de Blasio threaten to permanently shut down
mosques as he did Christian churches and Jewish synagogues if they dare to hold services? And then there is the case of
"the worst governor in America," Gretchen Whitmer. [...] How will she deal with the huge Muslim enclaves in Dearborn and
Ann Arbor as Ramadan arrives?
Why Politicians
Focus on Trivia in the Midst of Disaster. You've probably heard:
• The municipal government of San Clemente, CA trucked in 37 tons of sand, at a cost of at least $100,000 when you count removal, to forcibly close a skateboard park that was being used by no more than a few dozen people per day.
• Governor Christine Whitmer of Michigan required that all stores over 50,000 sq. feet close their garden centers, eliminating access to plants, seeds, and other supplies. The Governor admonished: "If you're not buying food or medicine or other essential items, you should not be going to the store."
• The mayor of Greenville, MS outlawed public gatherings, including religious ceremonies, and sent city police to issue $500 tickets to worshippers who were sitting in the parking lot, windows closed, listening to a "drive-in" sermon on Easter. The order was later reversed, but the mayor remains unapologetic.
• In Rhode Island, National Guard troops have been used at roadblocks, and in some cases for actual house-to-house searches, to find people who have "escaped" from New York to second homes or houses of relatives in the Granite State.
The Governors' Mutiny.
[Scroll down] Mr. Trump and all other officers and legislators and judges of the federal and state governments are
bound by oath to the Constitution. Yet that same parchment absolutely forbids the states, without the consent of
Congress, from entering into "any agreement or compact with another state[.]" That is American bedrock. It's right
up there with the prohibition on states granting titles of nobility, say, or keeping ships of war in time of peace.
One doesn't have to be a Civil War buff to see that states forming compacts or agreements with other states smacks of a challenge
to federal authority, no matter how un-total a president's authority might be. Yet a bloom of stories in the press suggests
states have begun doing just what the Constitution says they can't.
A
populace kept fearful is ripe for abuse. Along the way, the Protectors of our Well-Being began to give edicts
more feverishly and more randomly. "Wear a seat belt!" "Quit eating so much grain!" "Don't use those light bulbs!"
"Never drink from the hose!" "Get a safer gas can (at an exorbitant government-inflicted price)." "Stay out of the sun!"
"Don't eat butter!" "Eat butter!" On and on, the contradictory government edicts have been handed down from above.
And we dutifully fell in line. [...] Out of fear for personal safety, we bow down to their random and often senseless edicts.
Maybe by doing so, we will add a few more days to our lives? Maybe. I suppose it is possible. But those few
more days will also be government-controlled, highly taxed days.
The
FISA Scandal Is about Corruption, Not 'Sloppiness'. Consider this scenario: A federal lawyer is filling
out applications requesting FISA warrants to spy on American citizens who work for a major presidential campaign to determine
whether the campaign staffers are collaborating with a foreign power to steal the presidency of the United States. They
must know that such a conspiracy, should it be exposed, would be the most explosive in the history of the nation —
towering over the piddling criminality of Watergate or the Teapot Dome scandal. And any genuine effort to ferret out
criminality and sedition within one of the nation's major parties — perhaps going a high as the future
president himself — would be supported by unimpeachable underlying evidence and undertaken with abundant care and
meticulous oversight. So what are the chances that a good-faith investigation would botch nearly every request to spy
on the campaign when the FISA court is already signing off on over 99 percent of applications?
Ohio
uses smoke and mirrors on voters. The primary election in OH was set for March 10, 2020. Then someone in
Columbus, without explanation, changed the date to March 17, St. Patrick's Day. The cynical among us believe that
the hope was that fewer voters would turn out that day, with the Cleveland parade and all, which of course was cancelled for
the first time in 178 years. Except that lifelong politician and Governor Mike DeWine cancelled elections at 3:30 a.m.
on the 17th itself. He had gone to court earlier that day to try to stop the primary. DeWine said he would go along with
the judge's decision. The judge said "no" and all of a sudden the judge's decision was unimportant. It took DeWine's
cronies until 3:30 a.m. to get four Ohio Supreme Court judges to agree by phone to call off voting. (Was that even
legal?) DeWine set the new date as June 2. Then on March 25, the General Assembly passed H.B. 197,
resetting the date to April 28, 2020.
Why
Does 'Sunscreen' Appear 49 Times In The $2 Trillion Coronavirus Relief Package? The $2 trillion coronavirus
relief package passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump mentions the word sunscreen 49 times, but why is
that? How could that help fight the coronavirus as the deadly disease continues to spread throughout the U.S.?
The Treatment of Sunscreen Innovation Act, which benefits large manufacturers in Kentucky — where Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell is up for re-election in November — was placed into the coronavirus stimulus package.
Empire
State Building Debuts Dystopian Red "Siren" Light. The Empire State Building debuted what appeared to be a
spinning red 'siren' light atop the iconic structure in what many observers saw as a dystopian sign of the times.
Turning
the Empire State Building into a massive flashing siren. The top of the Empire State Building in New York City
was lit up tonight to look like an emergency flashing siren, in honor of healthcare workers and first responders risking
their lives in the new epicenter of the Chinese Corona Virus.
The Editor says...
It would have been less confusing and far less alarming if the purpose of this display had been publicized in advance.
(I've only seen the Empire State Building once, back in 1969, but I've always admired it as a national treasure.)
New
Yorkers baffled over 'unsettling' Empire State Building siren display. New Yorkers were left spooked Monday
night by a glaring Empire State Building light display intended to honor emergency workers fighting coronavirus. The iconic
Midtown skyscraper announced the debut of a display that began at 9 p.m. Monday [3/30/2020], and will continue on through
the course of the ongoing pandemic. "Starting tonight through the COVID-19 battle, our signature white lights will be
replaced by the heartbeat of America with a white and red siren in the mast for heroic emergency workers on the front line of
the fight," read a tweet from the building's official Twitter account. But to some, in addition to solidarity, the
siren induced anxiety, as it spun for the first time surrounded by low clouds. [Video clip]
The Editor says...
Such a signal could be used for tornado warnings, or to warn of an imminent military attack, but not if the
general public is trained to ignore it, which is what happened last night. Sounding a previously-unknown alarm
in a time of national emergency is an indication of monumentally poor judgement on the part of the city leadership.
Kelly
Loeffler Among Corrupt Senate Virus Profiteers. If you ever wondered how public servants get so rich serving
the public, or why the Senate and House are filled with so many millionaires, part of the answer is that they are often privy
to knowledge not available to the rest of us. Knowledge is power and it can also be very profitable if you are among
the legislators who can take advantage of it before any of us common folk hear about it. Just ask Sen. Kelly
Loeffler, R-Ga., who exploited knowledge provided in a private briefing about the Wuhan virus and its possible impact and
along with her husband sold stock worth millions just before the Chinese Wuhan virus spread worldwide and tanked global markets.
Insider
Trading Scandal Is Just Latest Reason Burr Should Be Removed As Intel Chair. Senate Intelligence Committee
Chairman Richard Burr is being criticized by liberals and conservatives due to the news he sold up to $1.6 million in stock
after receiving private briefings about the coronavirus but before the stock market began its sharp decline.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., tweeted of the North Carolina Republican: "Burr knew how bad it would
be. He told the truth to his wealthy donors, while assuring the public that we were fine. THEN he sold off $1.6
million in stock before the fall. He needs to resign." Tucker Carlson told his audience Burr needs to resign and await
prosecution if he's unable to explain his actions. He said if the allegations are true, that Burr has betrayed his
country in a time of crisis.
Senators
Must Be Investigated: Dumping Stocks After COVID-19 Classified Briefing Is Insider Trading. Senate
Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, along with three other Senate colleagues, should be ashamed and investigated
for insider trading if reports alleging they dumped their stock after receiving a classified briefing on coronavirus Jan. 24
are true. If it is true, which it appears to be, Burr should also be removed as the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence
Committee. According to reports he sold $1.6 million of his stock after receiving the closed door briefing.
Even
if legal, politicians profiting off inside information amid coronavirus crisis is outrageous. As the novel
coronavirus works it way through the United States, many Americans have seen their savings dwindle as the stock market
continues its unprecedented free fall. But for a handful US senators, the crisis was cause for a windfall. That's
because Richard Burr and Kelly Loeffler, both of whom were briefed for weeks as the coronavirus approached America, decided
it was a good idea to use their inside information to dump over a million dollar in stocks. Sens. Diane Feinstein
and Jim Inhofe also sold significant amounts of stock. To make matters worse for Burr, at the same time that he was
shedding doomed paper, he was assuring the American people that our nation was "better prepared than ever for coronavirus."
Oh? Really? So is that why Burr engaged in dozens of transactions to protect his own portfolio while his fellow
citizens lost billions?
Dianne
Feinstein, 3 more senators accused of dumping major holdings before stock market plunge. Sen. Dianne
Feinstein is reportedly part of a small group of senators who sold off millions of dollars worth of personal stock days
before the market crashed due to the coronavirus crisis. The California Democrat and three of her Senate colleagues
sold major holdings in February just before the stock market plunge, according to U.S. Senate disclosure records.
For
Jeff Sessions, inside-trading stock scandal is his golden moment. Jeff Sessions, President Trump's former
Attorney General, who went out with rancor from Trump for opening the gates to the Mueller investigation and impeachment, is
now running for his old Senate seat in Alabama. President Trump has endorsed his GOP rival. Sessions, with
admirable restraint, has stated over and over that he nevertheless supports Trump and his agenda — which is
perfectly credible, given that he was Trump's earliest high-profile supporter. All the same, it's pretty impressive,
given Trump's refusal to forgive. While that issue may be understandable on both sides — fundamentally,
Sessions wanted to be ethical, but, unlike Trump, he misunderstood the nature of the enemy he was appeasing, the new
insider-trading stock scandal in the news, apparently involving Senators Richard Burr, Kelly Loeffler, and now Dianne
Feinstein, gives his campaign some powerful impetus.
In
the Face of Pandemic, the U.S. Senate Sells Stocks and Plays Politics With Our Lives. On Thursday night
[3/19/2020], news broke of two Republican Senators, Richard Burr of North Carolina and Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, dropping
some serious stock after an all-Senators meeting where they received a briefing on the Wuhan coronavirus. We're talking
stock sales in the millions. It's an egregious abuse of power, if this is a case of insider trading, and there are
calls from all over for both of them to resign. Tucker Carlson even lit Burr up on his show and demanded he
resign. It's a bi-partisan thing right now, because we're in the middle of a pandemic and American citizens are
terrified. What do these two do when they catch wind of how bad it's going to be? They get rich off of the
crisis. For Loeffler's part, she says the transactions were made by a third party broker, and she was not aware of the
sale until weeks after.
Richard
Burr, Kelly Loeffler urged to resign for selling stocks after coronavirus briefing. Two more senators made
hefty stock sales before the coronavirus pandemic tanked global markets, records revealed as two other lawmakers who dumped
millions in shares faced mounting calls to resign. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Jim Inhofe sold as much as $6.4
million worth of stock in the weeks before panic about the coronavirus sparked a worldwide selloff, according to disclosure
filings first reported by the New York Times. The additional revelations came amid widespread outrage toward GOP
Sens. Richard Burr and Kelly Loeffler, who reportedly sold shares after getting briefings on the coronavirus threat.
Senator
Kelly Loeffler dumped $3.1m in stock and Senate Intel chairman Richard Burr sold $1.5m while getting classified briefings on
coronavirus. Four senators dumped millions of dollars worth of stock while Capitol Hill was being briefed on
the threat of coronavirus but before the markets tanked as infections soared, disclosure records have revealed.
Republicans Richard Burr, Kelly Loeffler and James Inhofe and Democrat Dianne Feinstein collectively offloaded up to
$11 million in stock between late January and early February, according to records seen by The Daily Beast and New York
Times. Burr, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee that was directly briefed on coronavirus, sold up to $1.7 million
in stock including in hotels; Feinstein, a member of the same committee, sold up to $6 million in stock including
in a biotech firm.
Senators
Loeffler And Burr Caught Dumping Their Stocks After Private Meeting On Coronavirus Impact. Two Republican
senators were caught selling off millions of dollars worth of stocks shortly after a closed-door Senate-only meeting
forecasting the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the Daily Beast reported Thursday [3/19/2020]. Republican Georgia
Senator Kelly Loeffler sold roughly $3.1 million in stocks she jointly held with her husband between January 24
and February 14, just before the disease put the stock market into freefall. Her colleague and fellow Republican
North Carolina Senator Richard Burr sold off roughly $1.5 million of his own stocks in February as well,
shortly before hosting a private meeting with wealthy constituents where he detailed to them the potential impacts of the
virus, according to NPR.
On the other hand...
4
Senators Dump Stock After Wuhan Virus Briefing Leaving Reporters Breathless; Here's What They're Missing.
[Scroll down] Here's what reporters are missing: (Let me preface this by saying that Sen. Burr is one of my
least favorite Republicans, and Sen. Feinstein, one of my least favorite Democrats. I am neutral on Sens. Loeffler
and Inhofe.) [#1] The stock market was extremely overbought at the time and professionals, in addition to most
Americans who follow the financial markets, were waiting for at least a ten percent correction. It had come a
long way in a short period of time and everyone knows markets never go straight up. This market was screaming for a
shakeout from at least mid-January on. If you were to indict every investor who sold stock during this period, the
number would be into the millions. [#2] Burr didn't sell his stock until three weeks after the briefing. Why
would he wait 21 days? That's an eternity in the stock market. [#3] Burr addresses the accusations in a
lengthy text message thread which can be viewed [elsew]here. The gist of it is that the lunch which NPR portrays as
"secret" was anything but.
Sources:
Lindsey Graham Uses China's Disease Crisis to Deliver Green Cards to Wealthy Chinese. Sen. Lindsey Graham
is using the coronavirus recovery bills to dramatically expand the award of EB-5 green cards to wealthy Chinese if they lend
money to U.S. real estate investors and other companies, according to several activists and Politico magazine.
"How can people pushing this not see how politically explosive this is?" said Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for
Immigration Studies. "An EB-5 increase would almost exclusively benefit Chinese: It is hard to imagine what they
are thinking."
House
Lawyers for Adam Schiff Assert Privilege over Schiff Subpoenas of Impeachment Phone Records. Judicial Watch
announced today [3/19/2020] that Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) and the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to dismiss the lawsuit against them for the
controversial impeachment-related subpoenas for phone records, including those of Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's
lawyer. Schiff and the Committee are being represented by the Office of General Counsel for the House of
Representatives. The phone records led to the publication of the private phone records of Giuliani, Congressman Devon
Nunes, journalist John Solomon, Trump attorney Jay Sekulow, attorney Victoria Toensing, and other American citizens.
The FISA States of America.
The Justice Department brazenly disregards the Constitution when it comes to spying. Does FISA help prevent
terrorism? As I noted here, the government obtained more than 1,000 warrants in a one-year timeframe to spy on
Americans. That's a lot of spying on a lot of Americans. The Justice Department's lying to obtain these warrants
has become so brazen that the court now questions whether it can trust any of the affidavits the FBI submits to
justify its domestic surveillance. The fact that none of these lies are ever criminally punished further reinforces a
cycle of dishonesty within the process.
Will Elizabeth Warren
Release Her Own NDA's? NDA's are back in the news, at least when those NDA's concern Mike Bloomberg. But
what about Elizabeth Warren's NDAs? Oh she may not have one for herself, but her colleagues do, there are over 250 of
them! What if I told you that Congressmen settled over 250 sexual harassment lawsuits using taxpayer money, and there
was no way to find out who these Congressmen were? Would you believe me? The truth is that the situation is as
described in the question. For decades members of Congress would use your taxpayer dollars to buy their way out of bad
publicity. When a member of Congress was accused of sexual harassment, the case went to a secret court known as the
Office of Compliance. Hidden from public view, Congress's Office of Compliance paid out over $17 million for 264
settlements involving misconduct and sexual harassment.
Wisconsin
parents suing school district for letting students switch genders without notice. Parents are suing a Wisconsin
school district for adopting a policy that allows students of any age to transition to a different gender and use a different
name while at school without parental notice or consent. The policy, according to the religious-liberty law firm
Alliance Defending Freedom, prevents school officials from communicating about the child's choice to transition with parents
if the student does not consent. The parents charge that the school's policy violates their parental rights, usurping
the upbringing of their children under Wisconsin law.
Revealed:
How the government keeps its UFO information secret. [Scroll down] Essentially, the DIA's UFO program
was set up to circumvent FOIA requests and avoid having to discuss UFOs publicly. Let that sink in for a moment.
This was a massive program that almost no one knew anything about and it was explicitly crafted in a way that would allow
them to keep all of the information from the public. And it worked.
Constitutional
law expert reacts to Trump impeachment: The legislative branch can abuse its power. On this week's
episode of "Life, Liberty & Levin," Constitutional law expert Randy Barnett told host Mark Levin that the president is not
the only elected official who can abuse their power. Barnett, the director of the Georgetown Center for the
Constitution, said the House of Representatives "misbehaved" in its inquiry and ensuing vote to impeach President Trump last
year. "The legislature can abuse power," Barnett said. "That is one of the reasons we have judicial review —
is to ensure that the legislature has not exceeded its proper powers — as it did, for example, when it passed the
Affordable Care Act pursuant to its Commerce Clause power."
It's
time for Trump to fight fire with fire. We should all recoil in horror that the Intelligence Community and the
DoJ could be weaponized against a sitting president. Spying, planting informants, the use of purely partisan Democrats'
oppo research to create a fake criminal narrative; how could decent Americans allow the rule of law to be bent in such an
unlawful fashion? And these plotters used scorched-earth tactics; surprising Trump supporters with unannounced
interviews to create perjury traps, threatening their children with jail time, sending SWAT teams to kick in their doors at
3 a.m., raiding his lawyers' offices to search for dirt, and placing a defendant for a nonviolent white-collar crime in
solitary confinement. How could this happen in the Land of the Free?
How
Democrats' Get-Trump Crusade Has Irreparably Damaged The Nation. For more than three years, Democrats, Never
Trump Republicans, and the left-leaning media proved themselves willing to destroy the country to destroy one man:
Donald J. Trump. From foreign affairs to counterintelligence to law enforcement, from domestic governance to
congressional oversight to separation of powers, Trump's enemies manipulated and misused our government powers because
Americans dared to elect the wrong leader. The Senate's acquittal yesterday [2/5/2020] of the president on the two
spurious articles of impeachment concluded (for now) the years-long coordinated efforts at a coup. But while Trump
escaped the onslaught, the damage inflicted on our country will not be easily abated.
Preventing Another 'Crossfire Hurricane'. Sometime
this year, the U.S. Attorney for Connecticut, John Durham, will probably have a grand jury issue indictments of some of the
"Crossfire Hurricane" leaders. Among them will likely be former FBI agent Peter Strzok, former FBI deputy director
Andrew McCabe, and former FBI director James Comey. He may also indict some of the CIA's current and former leaders
including Obama's CIA director John Brennan and current CIA Director Gina Haspel (Brennan's protégé) who ran
the overseas elements of "Crossfire Hurricane." However many of the "Crossfire Hurricane" team are indicted, and
whether or not they are convicted, their indictment will shake the FBI (and, we hope, the CIA) to their cores. The
indictments will have the effect of dissuading further secret investigations of presidential campaigns but even that effect
will not be permanent, nor will they prevent another "Crossfire Hurricane" from ever happening again.
Why the Senate Passed on Witnesses.
[Reason #2] In the House, a pathological liar like Adam Schiff actually could end up chairing the Intelligence
Committee. A Schiff and a Nadler actually could be hand-picked to run a sloppy and minor-league Grade C
impeachment. They could ram through votes as they like, hold secret sessions barred to the public, deny the President
basic rules of due process. They could run a kangaroo court and decide not to bother subpoenaing witnesses they want to
hear, leaving it instead to Schiff to fill in any blanks with lies, fabricated phone conversations, assertions about
"whistleblowers" that are not actually whistleblowers. They can get away with it because they have just enough clowns
and barkers in the arena to make it a circus, if they like. With an assemblage of Lying Adam Schiff, Doddering Nancy
Pelosi, Maxine Waters, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and a whole tent-full of such cartoon characters, there is no holding them
back when they have the majority.
Impeach
Pelosi/Schiff/Nadler for Abuse of Power. For three years, Democrats accused the president of having stolen the
2016 election. Now, they maintain, he is trying to steal the 2020 election. In reality, it was Hillary and
members of the Obama administration (and probably Obama himself) who tried to steal the 2016 election and it is Pelosi,
Schiff, and Nadler who are trying to steal 2020. Pelosi, Schiff, and Nadler are using the power of their offices to
erase the 2016 election, steal the 2020 Presidential Election, and damage Republican senators in purple states enough to flip
the upper chamber to Democratic Party control. Running on the issues against the successful Trump administration does
not appeal to them. Instead, they are using impeachment as the means to rig the election to get control of the
presidency and the Senate.
Fake
Investigations — Designed To Fool You. Many government officials with long entrenched power are
unwilling to give up any of that power. [...] Most of the big 'investigations' in the news in recent years have not been at
all what they pretended to be. The sham investigations of Hillary's email, or the Clinton Foundation, or Weiner's
laptop, or Uranium One, or Mueller's witch hunt, or Huber's big nothing, or the IG's whitewash, or the Schiff-Pelosi
charades, have all been premeditated deceptions. There are three types of investigations that call for different
deceptions by the Deep State. The first type is the rare honest investigation. Examples would be the attempt to
find the truth about Fast and Furious (Obama's gunrunning operation), or the IRS scandal (Obama's weaponizing of government).
In response to real investigations, the criminals do two things: lie and hide evidence. Key evidence, even if it
is under subpoena, just disappears. In the IRS case, Lois Lerner's relevant email and the email of 6 others involved in
the scheme was just "lost". The IRS "worked tirelessly" to find the email, but hard drives had been destroyed and back-up
drives were missing, so the subpoenaed evidence could not be provided. For the Deep State, hiding and destroying
evidence of guilt is standard operating procedure. They simply report a "glitch" that destroyed the key evidence and
that's the end of it. Or, they simply redact the portions of the record that would expose the truth. To my
memory, no one ever suffers any consequences for this.
When public business is done
behind closed doors. Nothing puts a journalistr's [sic] antenna up faster than when it appears some public official
is trying to hide something. That's exactly what was going on last winter, when the Connecticut Port Authority, we now
know, was hatching a grand plan, in secret, to drastically remake the historic port of New London, filling in seven acres of
the river between the two existing piers, one a stone 19th Century structure on the National Register of Historic
Places. The extensive $93 million project, to be done at the behest of Danish wind power giant Orsted and Connecticut
utility Eversource, with the state contributing $35 million, would potentially close the port to traditional cargo for the
better part of a generation.
Torquemada
Reborn: The Swamp's Dept. of Labor Inquisitions. During the turbulent tenure of former Secretary Alex
Acosta, a Jeffrey Epstein apologist and Billionaire Democratic Party donor enabler, the Department of Labor (DOL), through
the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), acted to further the Obama Administration's socialist agenda by
harassing and vexing businesses engaged in federal contracting. Astoundingly, even though Acosta's resigned amid the
Epstein scandal and the Trump Administration is pushing to expand economic growth via streamlined labor laws, the OFCCP
remains the feared torturer of American Industry. Before resigning, Acosta acted like an Obama holdover in the Trump
Administration. Bizarrely, Acosta's replacement, erstwhile conservative Eugene Scalia, son of the revered conservative
jurist Antonin Scalia, effectively perpetuates the Deep State Liberal hijacking of the DOL by failing to halt the OFCCP Obama
Labor Inquisitions.
Unequal
Justice And The Persecution Of Steve Stockman, Proud Boys, Andy Ngo. If the hallmark of a Third World country
is arbitrary law enforcement, we are already there. Former Congressman Steve Stockman, an immigration patriot and a
stalwart of the conservative movement, is serving a ten-year sentence for fundraising crimes, that, even if committed, would
typically be punished by far less. The extensive investigation was spearheaded by the same people Stockman exposed for
weaponizing the IRS against conservative organizations. In contrast, Democratic officials accused of crimes receive kid
gloves treatment — even with the supposedly "authoritarian" Trump in the White House. The Trump
Administration's Department of Justice is being slammed for supposedly being "far-Right," but it's not even upholding equal
justice against Leftist Deep State bureaucrats. Stockman has been a thorn in the side of the Republican Establishment
but a hero to many grassroots conservatives for years.
Watchdog
Group Suing Adam Schiff Over Release Of Private Phone Records. The conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch
announced Wednesday [1/8/2020] that it has filed a lawsuit against Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and the House Intelligence
Committee for information relating to the acquirement and release of the phone records from Rudy Giuliani, Devin Nunes, and
others. "We are seeking records about [Schiff's] controversial subpoenas that led to his publishing the private phone
records of President Trump's lawyers and other innocent Americans including: President Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani,
Congressman Devin Nunes, and journalist John Solomon," the group said in a video announcing the lawsuit. "The lawsuit
seeks all subpoenas by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to telephone providers, including, but not
limited to, AT&T."
The Schiff Effect. [Scroll down] As [Trey]
Gowdy noted, time after time after time, Schiff and other House Democrats leaked — in partisan fashion —
confidential information that should never have been slipped to their buddies in the media. All targeted to attack the
president. And in so doing, what could be called "the Schiff Effect" created for the Democrats in both the House and
Senate a seriously bad reputation for not being trustworthy with the handling of confidential information. It is, as
D'Souza was alluding, almost the same as leaking the information directly to the Iranians themselves. Add to this image
the rabid Trump Derangement Syndrome among Democrats, which has them literally siding with the murderous Iranian regime over
the president.
Financing
Big Government with the Printing Press. Back in January, I wrote about the $42 trillion price tag of Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal. To pay for this massive expansion in the burden of government spending, some advocates
have embraced "Modern Monetary Theory," which basically assumes the Federal Reserve can finance new boondoggles by printing
money. [...] Wow, this Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) reminds me of the old joke about "I can't be out of money. I still
have checks in my checkbook."
The
FISA Court Is Just As Guilty, Knew About Lies and Omissions Years Ago. In the wake of the IG report, most of
the blame for the Carter Page FISA abuse has rightly landed at the feet of the FBI and its leadership. There is no
doubt they actively chose to lie to the court in order to target someone they had insufficient evidence to target. As
part of the unfolding of the saga in the wake of Horowitz's report, the FISA court itself released a denunciation of FBI
procedures and asked for an audit of other warrant request to see if the problems were systematic. The tone of the
letter was indignant but also smacked of trying to pass the buck. No one held a gun to the head of these FISA judges
and forced them to approve 99% of warrants placed before them, including the woefully lacking Page warrant. In fact,
it's now clear that the FISA court itself knew about these lies and omissions years ago and chose to essentially do nothing
about them, perhaps even actively covering them up.
Against
all Odds — Three FBI Officials Quietly Working to Reveal the Truth. I'm not sure exactly who they
are, and there's a possibility they might just be one person; however, it appears there are three distinct FBI
officials engaged in an overall investigative capacity, attempting to break the truth through the corrupt machinery.
Each individual is noted within a specific event or outcome. Hopefully AG Bill Barr has tasked his deputy James Rosen
to hold an honest 'climate assessment' discussion with these individuals. The first honorable FBI Agent is the
FBI official who enhanced the DOJ sentencing memo for James Wolfe. The DOJ prosecution, namely DC U.S. Attorney Jessie
K Liu — possibly following instructions from Rod Rosenstein — was trying to cover-up the classified
intelligence leak of SSCI Security Director James Wolfe in order to protect powerful Senators.
Blind
man's bluff: The curse of secret investigation. The FBI had pursued an investigation of a presidential
campaign on the basis of a dossier bought and paid for by the rival candidate with incalculable results: "This is the
FBI's darkest hour." The most disquieting aspect of the whole affair was pointed out by the NY Post editorial
board. Could more abuses have been committed against the general public? If the FBI could fabricate pretexts against
prominent individuals who could afford the best lawyers, how safe were ordinary individuals from the secret inquisitors?
Two
Possibilities in Trump Wiretapping, and Neither Is Good. The report of the I.G.'s findings on the use of FISA
in the FBI Crossfire Hurricane investigation is an outrage. As a 22 year FBI Agent, I have personally conducted
multiple investigations using both Title III "wiretaps" and FISA authorized intercepts. From this perspective, I can
only see two possible interpretations of the actions of the FBI and DOJ. Either scenario should anger and frighten
every fair minded citizen who takes the time to read the report and understand its implications.
If
The FBI's Contempt For The Law Is Not Reined In, Its Abuses Will Get Worse. In 2018, the U.S. government filed
1,117 final applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court for authority for the FBI to conduct electronic
surveillance and physical searches. One application was withdrawn. One other was denied. The remaining
1,115 were granted. [...] The legitimacy of the FBI is in free fall. But not its terrifying power. The biggest
lie about the latest Office of Inspector General report is that it reveals "mistakes" made by the FBI. These weren't
mistakes. The FISA court used more accurate terminology, like "misconduct."
FBI
is investigating former Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin who issued more than 400 pardons in the weeks after he lost his
reelection bid. The FBI is investigating former Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin who controversially issued more
than 400 pardons in the weeks after he lost his reelection bid. Among those who were granted clemency after Bevin lost
his seat on November 5 was murderer Patrick Baker, who had served two years of a 19-year sentence for killing a man during
a home invasion. Bevin also pardoned Micah Schoettle who was sentenced in 2018 to 23 years in prison for multiple
sexual offences involving children.
The
only guilty party during impeachment is Adam Schiff. [Scroll down] But to Mr. Schiff, California
Democrat, and the Democratic leadership, President Trump had to be impeached by Christmas — at all costs.
Laws and the foregoing principles fairness of that interfere with this edict must be cut down. Why? The Articles
of Impeachment charge: (1) obstruction of Congress; and (2) abuse of power. But Mr. Schiff has so
biased and twisted the impeachment proceedings that, in the height of irony, he stands condemned by his own mouth of the same
transgressions for which he will prosecute the president. On this record it is Mr. Schiff, who has obstructed
Congress and abused his power — not the president.
Former AG Mike Mukasey: Adam Schiff Broke the Law
in Subpeonaeing Phone Records from Verizon and AT&T. [Scroll down] [Quoting Mr. Mukasey:]
["]That is the stunner, not just that he had them, but where he got them, from the phone company providing the
service. There are statutes, part of the criminal code that restrict the ability of anybody to get those records and
they list who can get them under what circumstances and that doesn't include Congress. It is for law enforcement, for
law enforcement purposes, or if the company wants to disclose them to save somebody's life or prevent serious injury they can
do that. Those are the only circumstances. A Congressional committee, as far as I know, has no authority to
subpoena that information.["]
Judicial
Watch Files a Lawsuit Against Adam Schiff and the House Intelligence Committee Over Phone Records. Government
watchdog group Judicial Watch on Friday filed a lawsuit against Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and the House Intelligence
Committee for failing to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Specifically, Judicial Watch wanted
information about private phone records that were released as part of the Democrats' partisan impeachment push against
President Donald Trump. The revelation came about on page 153 of the House Intelligence Committee's report on its
investigation into Ukraine.
Adam
Schiff: Psychopath, or guilty conscience? Fresh from his impeachment stunt, House Intelligence committee
chairman Adam Schiff comes off as an amazing creep in the aftermath. Asked about the recent Horowitz report's findings
on Carter Page, a young Trump advisor who was illegally spied upon, Schiff said he had no sympathy. [...] What happened to
Page was an outrage, an unmistakeably grave abuse of government power as mendacious FISA warrants were enacted to spy on
innocent and cooperative person. Even people who dislike President Trump can pretty naturally recognize that Page's
constitutional rights on unreasonable searches and seizures was violated. Not Schiff, though. All he could emit was
stone heartlessness for the man whose good name was ruined by abuses of government power, revealing an utter absence of empathy.
Corrupt
Democrats Pushing America toward the Abyss. The rabid rogues who spat out this incomplete impeachment effort
are corrupt to the core, all sense of sanity and restraint long gone. The roots of this outrage were planted in 2008,
when Democrats achieved near absolute power with the election of President Barack Obama. For the first two years of
Obama's administration, Democrats controlled Congress, to include having enough seats in the Senate to override a
filibuster. Democrats and their supporters ultimately had control of the Executive Branch, Congress, the vast majority
of the federal courts, the media, academia, the entertainment industry, the federal bureaucracy, and the babbling women of
The View. They had a stranglehold on almost every lever of power and influence the likes of which had not
been seen in generations. Not only were Democrats not shy about using these levers, but under President Obama, they
turned them into weapons. They believed themselves to be ascendant, and they expected it to last forever.
DOJ's
High Crimes and Misdemeanors. Conservative talk show hosts frequently say corruption in federal law enforcement
is "just at the top; we're not talking about the rank and file of these agencies." But Representative Adam Schiff,
Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, was a low level a federal prosecutor in the late 80s and early 90s.
Robert Mueller was with DOJ during the same period. Peter Strozk joined the FBI in the 90s. Do we really believe
members of the law enforcement community arrive at the top and then become corrupt? No. Skills of tampering with
evidence to hide or alter it, fabricating false narratives, and controlling what information comes out in trials —
or House hearings — are well-honed at lower levels of these agencies.
Schiff
May Have Broken the Law with His Subpoena of Nunes' Phone Records. Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey has
questioned the legality of Rep. Adam Schiff's (D-Calif.) recent acquisition of phone records for five individuals, one
of whom is House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.). Schiff is already facing criticism of his
actions as Democratic members of Congress pursue the impeachment of President Donald Trump. But, in what's being called
a "stunning abuse of congressional power," Schiff divulged the phone records of Nunes, attorney Rudy Guiliani, and others
during a recent session of the impeachment inquiry.
IG
report suggests FBI might cheat on all its FISA wiretap requests. Former FBI Director James Comey initially
portrayed last week's damning report on the bureau's probe of Russiagate as a vindication. This week, Comey admitted
that Inspector General Michael Horowitz discovered "real sloppiness," which is "concerning." That characterization does
not begin to cover the problems described by Horowitz, which this week prompted a highly unusual public rebuke from the court
that reviews secret warrant applications under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The FISA court called the
FBI's conduct "antithetical to the heightened duty of candor" that applies in such cases. Comey may take comfort in the
fact that Horowitz didn't find political bias. The rest of us can hardly be reassured by the implication that the FBI
is inept rather than corrupt.
Devin
Nunes: The FISA Court and FBI "Dirty Cops" are Working Together to Harm Americans. As you listen to this
please keep in mind that Devin Nunes is the Ranking Member, former Chairman, of the House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence. Devin Nunes is increasing his warning tone and signals to Americans. All nuance, pretense and
subtlety is now being dropped. Rep. Nunes is openly stating that FBI officials and FISA judges are working
together with the *intent* to conspire against the American people. [Video clip]
Exxon's
big court win exposes major malpractice in the New York Attorney General's Office. Exxon's win Tuesday against
New York state's climate-change lawsuit couldn't have been more complete: Not only did the judge find the Attorney
General's Office failed to prove fraud, he also blasted the case as "hyperbolic" — and praised Exxon. State
Supreme Court Judge Barry Ostrager said the state's lawyers failed to show the company ever "made any material misstatements
or omissions" that could mislead any "reasonable" observer. The AG's Office had claimed Exxon defrauded investors in
violation of the Martin Act and other laws. But Ostrager flagged the "politically motivated statements by former New
York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman," who launched the Exxon probe — which show that the litigation was
political from the start.
Rand
Paul to reporters: Why aren't you making a bigger deal about Schiff's "immoral, unfair" seizure of phone
records? The seizure of phone records by Adam Schiff might have angered some Republicans even more than the
impeachment process it was supposed to advance. GOP members in both the House and Senate have been expressing outrage
for days over Schiff's actions, perhaps none more than Sen. Rand Paul. He wrote a blistering op-ed over Schiff's
actions on Friday [12/6/2019], calling the seizure of records from fellow members of Congress and journalists "brazen and shameful."
Schiff's
release of phone records is absolutely outrageous. Sometimes the hypocrisy in Washington is so bad it is almost
laughable. The House impeachment witch hunt reached that level this week with the revelations that Intelligence
Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., had acquired and published personal phone records of Rep. Devin Nunes,
R-Calif., (the ranking member on the Intelligence Committee), two of President Trump's personal attorneys, and an
investigative journalist Schiff doesn't like. This act was brazen and shameful. While it may not have been
illegal (because Congress writes its own rules on investigations) it certainly was wrong. It certainly tramples on
rights normally held dear by the left. But most of all what it did was expose that Schiff, for all of his pompous bluster,
is doing exactly what he has accused President Trump of doing: using his power to investigate his political opponents.
Adam Schiff Better
Have a Warrant. As chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, U.S. Representative Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) is
supposed to be the lawmaker in charge of protecting Americans from the government snooping on our phone records. He's
not supposed to be using his position to snoop around in the phone records of Americans. We have no oversight committee
to protect Americans from Schiff's spying. But, in his recent report on the inquiry into President Trump's interactions
with the Ukrainian government, Schiff disclosed that he has indeed been spying on Americans.
The
Shakespearean Grandeur of Trump Derangement Syndrome. [Scroll down] To put it into even simpler language,
the impeachment of the president, for the Framers, was not conceived of as a tool for easy removal of that official whenever
Congress may have political or policy differences with him. It was to be reserved for occasions when there was a clear,
convincing, and undeniable mistake made by those who selected the president when the president turned out to be something
other than represented. Impeachment, in other words, is not a game of "Gotcha!" It is not about finding one or two
things that can be spun to be self-serving acts, it is not about whether this president may have sought to use another country
in ferreting out corruption in that country or at home, and may have used the powers of the presidency to seek to do just that.
Adam Schiff Has Jumped the Shark.
Many Americans remain nonplussed over revelations in the House Intelligence Committee's Impeachment Inquiry Report that its
chairman, Adam Schiff, not only secretly subpoenaed telephone records from President Trump's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, but
also obtained responses that detailed dates and lengths of phone calls to Trump attorney Jay Sekulow, ranking committee
member Devin Nunes, and Hill reporter John Solomon. That Schiff self-disclosed this action as a rightful part of
his committee's information gathering is equally stunning. Every bit as bad, it appears that national telephone
carriers AT&T and Verizon, who so tout their corporate concerns about subscriber privacy, responded to such obviously
politicized demands without a whimper. Schiff's actions, and indeed those of everyone involved in secretly demanding
and producing these phone records, while perhaps not outright illegal, are simply beyond the pale and reminiscent of Big
Brother, from George Orwell's 1984.
Hold
the Phone, Call Records Released by Adam Schiff. It was bad enough for House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff
(D-CA) to subpoena the phone records of businessman Lev Parnas and President Donald Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani and other
political opponents, but when he released them in his impeachment report it was a stunning abuse of power. In the view
of columnist Kimberly Strassel, Schiff's move "trampled law and responsibility... it was a disgraceful breach of ethical and
legal propriety." Not surprisingly, Trump hating members of the news media trumpeted the release of the call records as
a major step toward the President's impeachment. Their desire to destroy the President is so all-consuming that they
missed the bigger picture. Instead, journalists should have been outraged by this invasion of privacy and misuse of
power. These records should have never been released to Schiff or any politician and should have never been included in
his impeachment report.
Why
Is Our Society Degrading So Badly, So Fast? In Washington, the Democrats are attempting to subvert the will of
the majority of the American people, as expressed by the election results in 2016, by executing and plotting orchestrated
campaigns to remove President Trump from office before the next election. These efforts range from the recently
unsuccessfully perpetrated Russia collusion hoax, which is now being followed up by an illegitimate impeachment drive by the
House. These operations also revealed the mostly clandestine activities of a permanent and extensive Deep State, also
labeled "the swamp," actively working with the Democrats to subvert President Trump. A broken environment exists in
Washington that contributes to the perception that too many of our elected officials feel free to participate in and to
tolerate corruption without being held accountable for their actions. It is highly discouraging for many Americans that
up to this point, there have been no legal consequences or viable restraints in place to curb these types of actions that are
so fundamentally dangerous to the very foundations of our country.
What Impeachment Tells Us A Democrat-Controlled
America Would Look Like. That Democrats would seek to impeach President Trump was apparently foreordained, but
the Democrats' attempts to invent justifications for what can only be described as a coup have told us much more about them,
than they have revealed about Donald Trump's alleged misdeeds. What we have learned most recently is that a Democrat
Congress can conduct secret warrantless searches against private citizens, against journalists and against attorneys in a
completely extra-judicial attempt to pierce the attorney-client privilege. But that should really not have surprised
us — it is merely an extension of what Democrats did during the Obama years when they surveilled journalist Sharyl
Attkisson and others, and used the NSA to sweep up the phone calls of an unknown number of Americans who may or may not have
been associated with the Trump campaign.
Obtaining phone logs
of political rivals is a stunning abuse of congressional power. Fanatics can justify any action, and House
Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff this week demonstrated where that mindset leads. In his rush to paint Donald Trump as
a lawbreaker, Mr. Schiff has himself trampled law and responsibility. That's the bottom line in Mr. Schiff's
stunning decision to subpoena the phone records of Rudy Giuliani and others. Mr. Schiff divulged the phone logs
this week in his Ukraine report, thereby revealing details about the communications of Trump attorneys Jay Sekulow and
Mr. Giuliani, [...]
WSJ
Columnist: Adam Schiff's Secret Subpoena Adventure Could End with Legal Buckshot in His Face. This isn't
about the Constitution, or the framers, or the rule of law. It's not about upholding the integrity of our institutions;
Democrats have already perverted those with their deep state antics against this administration. It's about the
Democratic Party's inability to grasp that it lost the 2016 election. Democrats wanted to boot Trump since day one of
his presidency. The ironic twist is that their impeachment fetish could very well be what secures him a second
term. This is not popular in swing states. No one cares. And the liberal media has been so wrong, so
stupid, and so corrupt in their coverage of this White House, even Democrats in these states cannot believe what they hear.
[...] In the crusade to impeach Trump, [Adam] Schiff also appears to have abused his power — and it's all in plain
sight. It's meant to be that way. It's to show off that he can get away with it.
Devin
Nunes Discusses Impeachment and Schiff's New Found Authority — Congressional Subpoenas for Private Phone
Records. Devin Nunes appeared on Tucker Carlson to discuss the impeachment events of the day. However,
thankfully they also discussed the revelation that HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff randomly started issuing subpoenas for
telephone information. That's the part I find very troubling. Notice how the media simply ignores it? This
is a pretty big [...] deal. Under what authority can congress arbitrarily send subpoenas for the private phone records
of citizens, journalists, and fellow politicians? Can Nunes now start sending subpoenas for the phone records of
Michael Isikoff around the time of the Flynn phone call leak? [A]nd can congress publish those call records as a part
of some possibly inquiry into the leak[,] and we can cross reference to identify the FBI leaker?
Adam
Schiff Abused His Power to Dig up Dirt on Opponents. House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Adam
Schiff (D-CA) has done almost exactly what he and fellow Democrats accuse President Donald Trump (falsely) of doing: he
abused his power to ask an outside entity to investigate political opponents. Schiff subpoenaed phone records from AT&T
that he then used to claim his Republican counterpart, Ranking Member Rep. Devin Nunes (D-CA), was part of a plot to
smear a U.S. ambassador.
Strassel,
Attkisson would like to know when Schiff will be held accountable by media for 'snooping' on free press. With
all eyes on the latest on Democrats' impeachment circus show, it seems that attention turned away from House Intelligence
Chairman Adam Schiff "snooping" on members of the press. The California Democrat came under fire after the release of
the House Intelligence Committee's impeachment inquiry report which included phone records for Trump's personal attorney Rudy
Giuliani and others, including the committee's ranking member, Rep. Devin Nunes and members of the press like John Solomon.
Nunes
Not Aware of Any Previous Time HPSCI Subpoenaed Phone Records; Calls it a 'Gross Abuse of Power'. Rep Devin
Nunes (R-CA) explained on Fox News Wednesday night how House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) obtained the phone
records of President Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani. Nunes told host Tucker Carlson that as far as he knew, the action
the Democrats took to spy on the president's allies was unprecedented and that he was considering "legal remedies" to protect
his civil rights. Democrats obtained the phone records as part of their impeachment inquiry and according to critics,
in possible violation of basic civil liberties.
About those
phone records. Contrary to the RedState post on which John relied [elsew]here, it does not appear that the
Democrats obtained the phone records of Ranking Member Nunes or journalist John Solomon (or of Nunes staff member Derek
Harvey). Rather, the Democrats appear to have obtained the AT&T cell phone records of Rudy Giuliani (including Giuliani
Partners) and the recently indicted Lev Parnas. [...] Schiff is a lout and a liar. This particular aspect of Schiff's
efforts appears to have no purpose other than to smear and/or sideline Nunes, who has established himself as the Republicans'
most valuable player in deconstructing Schiff shows past and present.
'Dirty
cops': FBI leaves trail of lies, leaks, lapses in Trump era. The FBI already has amassed a record of misconduct
by top officials leading up to Monday, when the Justice Department inspector general is scheduled to release conclusions on
whether agents also abused the bureau's intrusive wiretapping powers. To date, four inspector general reports and
internal Justice Department documents have found senior FBI officials guilty of lying, insubordination, security violations,
mishandling confidential material and personal biases against President Trump. Rep. Devin Nunes, the California
Republican who discovered that the FBI had used a Democratic Party-financed dossier as evidence, often refers to bureau
leaders as "dirty cops." Lisa Page, a former FBI senior counsel and one of those singled out, portrayed herself this
week as an innocent victim of FBI betrayal. Meanwhile, news media stories have downplayed the significance of the
upcoming inspector general's report on how the FBI spied on the Trump campaign through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Act and other means.
The
New Nihilists: Political Nihilism and the Progressive Movement in America. The rise of progressivism had
a lasting effect on the nation, as president after president followed Teddy's lead and sought to expand the power and scope
of the federal government. Wilson, who advocated a Darwinian approach to the Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution, gave us the progressive income and estate tax. FDR instituted the New Deal, and LBJ advanced the Great
Society, waged the War on Poverty, and launched Medicare. Not to be outdone, Bill Clinton signed the job-killing North
American Free Trade Agreement; Richard Nixon established the EPA and OSHA; Jimmy Carter developed the Departments of
Education and Energy; and George W. Bush created Homeland Security, the Transportation Safety Administration, and
No Child Left Behind.
FBI Diagnosed With
CIA Disease. The Justice Department's inspector general this month reprimanded the FBI for the manner in which
it recruits and supervises its "confidential human sources." To the layman, this seems about technicalities. In
fact, it shows that one of the CIA's deadliest dysfunctions now infects the FBI as well. This disease consists of
choosing and rejecting sources for the purpose of indulging the agencies' and their leaders' private agendas rather than to
further intelligence work on the public's behalf.
WhiskeyWarrior556
falls victim to New York's red flag laws. On Friday [11/22/2019], police showed up to a young man's workplace
and tried to arrest him over social media posts reported to them by an old army buddy of the 28-year-old Afghanistan
veteran. This man, known as Alex and popular on Instagram under the handle of WhiskeyWarrior556, slipped out of the
back door, hurried home to check on his family where he found out police had already forced themselves into his home and
confiscated his legal firearms after threatening his wife with calling child protective services to remove her newborn child.
[...] If the current legal landscape allows for citizens to have their Second Amendment rights stripped from them without any
legal opportunity to dissent, what are the next rights to be taken?
On
Government-Run Opposition Research: The Damage the Church Committee Revealed and Caused. An earlier essay
on today's dueling accusations of government-sponsored opposition research described past examples of the practice, including
how members of the Watergate Special Prosecution Force (WSPF) had assembled investigatory files on all potential GOP
presidential candidates going into the 1976 election: John Connally, Gerald Ford, Nelson Rockefeller, Robert Dole, and
even Ronald Reagan. I concluded by asking if such abuse of process stretched back even further. Today's essay
answers that question by citing a multitude of examples from the 1960s, each lovingly documented by FBI testimony before the
Church Committee.
'Crossfire
Hurricane' and the FISA Court: An expert's view. "Operation Crossfire Hurricane," the FBI's code name for
its investigation into Donald Trump's campaign and Russia, blew through the United States in 2016 and did more damage to our
national security institutions than any real hurricane could. The upcoming report from the Department of Justice's
Inspector General may well conclude that high-level Obama Justice Department and FBI officials knowingly lied to obtain
top-secret surveillance warrants that were originally designed to target foreign spies and terrorists, and used them to
monitor a U.S. citizen whose only crime appears to have been acting as an adviser to the Trump campaign. While lying to
a federal court is a crime, lying in the context of using our nation's most secret — and most constitutionally
intrusive — counter-intelligence assets as part of a false narrative to oppose a political candidate is downright
dangerous and should strike fear in the average citizen who now is left to wonder what protects them from such seemingly
unchecked power of the state.
Enough
Calm, Where's the Storm? Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, deep within the seditious coup, fired by
then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, supposedly under investigation, got a nice gig as a CNN contributor. Despite
McCabe being one of the point men in spying on the Trump campaign, the Department of Justice has, "No immediate plans to
prosecute former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe." Compare McCabe's treatment by the Justice Department to that of a
Trump campaign advisor. "Republican operative Roger Stone was found guilty Friday [11/15/2019] of all seven counts
against him, including witness tampering and making false statements." According to the Department of Justice Office of
Inspector General, McCabe gave, "False testimony under oath to the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility." Stone
make false statements to the FBI and faces 20 years in prison. McCabe makes false statements to the FBI and becomes
a cable news talking head. Some storm. It's a promotion for McCabe, and prison for Stone.
Conviction
of Roger Stone is the "tipping point for tyranny" as Americans realize the whole system is rigged. Yes, while
the dirtiest, most corrupt, most treasonous criminals in America go free, Roger Stone is going to be sentenced to essentially
life in prison for the non-crime of mis-remembering something while talking to federal prosecutors. This is called a
"process crime," and it's the same kind of non-crime that federal prosecutors routinely use when they want to criminalize
someone who hasn't committed any real crime. But real crimes are exactly what the deep state spy machine committed
against President Trump and his allies as an effort to carry out a coordinated political coup against the United States of
America. Yet to this day, not a single treasonous criminal has been arrested or indicted.
10
reasons why this impeachment 'inquiry' is really a coup. [#3] First-term impeachment: The Clinton and
Nixon inquiries were directed at second-term presidencies, when there were no more electoral remedies for alleged
wrongdoing. By contrast, Trump is up for election in less than a year. Impeachment, then, seems a partisan
exercise in either circumventing a referendum election or in damaging a president seeking re-election. [...] [#10]
Precedent: The indiscriminate efforts to remove Trump over the past three years, when coupled with the latest
impeachment gambit, have now set a precedent in which the out party can use impeachment as a tool to embarrass, threaten or
seek to remove a sitting president and reverse an election. We are witnessing constitutional government dissipating
before our eyes.
Why Should
We Keep Our Guns? The right to bear arms shall not be infringed, according to the Second Amendment. All
winning candidates, as well as all appointees to office, must affirm under oath that they will support and defend the
Constitution. Nevertheless, many officials have demonstrated their disdain for that oath, for aspects of the
Constitution, for unalienable rights, and for the lawful limits of their delegated power. They have reneged on their
solemn promise to support the Constitution. They have betrayed the people, deceiving them upon taking the oath with no
intention of fulfilling it; or else have decided to violate the oath after having taken it. In either case, the failure
to keep the oath renders them ineligible to hold office. The tendency to fail to keep the oath of office is so
commonplace, with virtually no consequences occurring as a result of that crime, that some candidates for public office now
campaign for office on the basis of promises to violate the oath of office.
Our Elites
Don't See What's Coming. [Scroll down] This all leads us to a serious problem that we as a country are
facing: we've been losing trust in our institutions for quite some time. All that the last few years have done is
to reinforce that kind of thinking. Seriously. Ask yourself: Do you really trust the FBI? I don't.
With the recent reports from Michael Flynn's attorney, Sidney Powell, apparently senior FBI agents tampered with 302s, falsifying
information to get the results they wanted which had nothing to do with the truth. This was the FBI —
supposedly the world's greatest law enforcement agency. I don't think so. Until those senior officials go to
jail for their abuse of power my distrust of the FBI will continue. Do you really trust the Justice Department?
Maybe. I'll see what Attorney General Barr and John Durham pursue and actually accomplish. I can assure you,
however, if there are not prosecutions with jail time, scratch that institution off the list. The CIA?
Forget about it. Congress? You mean the inept worthless institution that sits on its hands and has ceded
massive control of the lawmaking function of government to the administrative state? I have to tell you:
is there really a point to Congress in its current form?
Kimberley
Strassel's Home Run. [Scroll down] As she notes, the very term "the Resistance" is associated throughout
history with movements designed to fight "occupying powers" as, say, the French Resistance came to life to fight the forces
of the occupying Nazi Germany. And once one goes down that road, as has the Trump-hating Resistance, the Resisters
"view themselves as justified in taking any action necessary to get rid of the occupier." Set loose the Department of
Justice and the FBI to spy on a presidential campaign? No problem. Ambush a Supreme Court nominee "with
uncorroborated sexual assault allegations"? No problem. Use "the impeachment process for political retribution"?
No big deal. This, says Strassel, "has been the behavior of the Resistance leaders, and it has already caused harm to
vital institutions." Yes indeed. And none more prominent than the self-inflicted massive damage the Justice
Department, the FBI, and the "mainstream media" have done to their own credibility.
Who Can
Stop Trump Now? [Scroll down] The rules of the impeachment process legalized by the House of
Representatives turned out to be even worse than all assumptions. Firstly, this is the first investigation of the
current president in U.S. history, sanctioned by members of only one party: the opposition. Secondly, the new
rules of impeachment legalize the de facto dictatorship of one person: chairman of the Intelligence Committee Adam
Schiff. Schiff gained almost unlimited power. Now it is Schiff alone who decides who will be called in as a
witness, what questions can be asked to the witness, and who exactly will get the right to ask questions. Schiff
obtained the right to terminate the hearing if his version of the events is disputed by some intractable witness.
Republicans were [...] given the right to be able to ask Schiff to call a defense witness, and then only Schiff would be able
to decide to admit such a witness. Only Schiff decides whether the hearing will be open or closed and whether a
transcript of the committee's meetings will be made public.
Orwellian
Fear Reigns in Vermont. George Orwell explained in 1984 how Big Brother employed constant fear to pacify the
masses (the "proles"), with vague foreign "threats" that were purely fictitious. In the Cold War, it was nuclear
extinction; in the Iraq War (and still), it was "threat levels." After 9/11, Americans were cautioned with "threats to
the homeland." Orwell warned not just of Soviet socialism, but of any monolithic government that sought dominance.
Steve
Scalise: Pelosi Using Impeachment Probe to Influence 2020 Presidential Election. While briefing reporters
in the wake of the House Democrat's approval, along party lines, of the impeachment inquiry resolution, Scalise declared:
["]If you look at where we are at right now, we're at an important point in history. Clearly, there are people
that we serve with that don't like the results of the 2016 election — that's their prerogative — but
the country next year will be deciding who our president is going to be. It should not be Nancy Pelosi and a small
group of people that she selects that get to determine who's going to be our president.["] He went on to say
that Democrats are not interested in getting to the bottom of the allegations that triggered the impeachment effort.
Instead, their focus is solely on removing President Donald Trump from office and overturning the results of the 2016
elections, Scalise indicated.
Trick or Trick.
The nation is beginning to see the ugliness of the establishment, people who believe they have a divine right (if they
believed in the divine) to run the federal government. If that right is ever challenged, that's when the long knives
come out. Secret testimonies, barring Republicans from calling their own witnesses or cross-examining the ones
Democrats have subpoenaed, and now a federal judge's ruling that secret grand jury records from Special Counsel Robert
Mueller's investigation must be turned over to House Democrats — this is how the establishment fights back.
A Wall Street Journal editorial called it "political damage control" when Democrats criticized a decision by the Justice
Department to open a criminal investigation into the genesis of the Russian "collusion" with the 2016 Trump campaign.
How
America's justice system is beginning to crumble. We Americans have long prided ourselves on the fairness of
our system of justice. It remains the best in the world. But, just like a strong and magnificent bridge across a
wide river, corrosion can set in. If not monitored and repaired, the bridge can suddenly collapse. Likewise, if
we ignore the warning signs, if we do not address the inequities in our justice system, the public will reach a point when
there is so little respect for the law that its enforcement will cease to be effective. The danger is that we might
become a lawless society, and that will lead to becoming a failed state. Chaos and disintegration could follow.
Hyperbole? Here are seven warning signs, present today, that we ignore at great peril. [...]
GOP
Has A Choice: Fight Anti-Trump Coup Effort Or Surrender Government To Democrats. What we are facing now
is not partisan warfare, it's not a mystery novel, it's not politics-as-usual. We are facing an attempt to tear down
the foundations of our republic by corrupt, unelected bureaucrats who have decided the will of voters is subordinate to their
will to power. It represents a fatal threat to our system of government, and if this coup succeeds — whether
through impeachment proceedings, or through an election that (if the last three years are any indication) the other side is
clearly willing to steal by hook or by crook — the nation will cease to be a constitutional, democratic
republic. This isn't about Trump, or Republicans, or conservatives. It is about Washington needing to learn that
political differences have to be settled at the ballot box lest they instead be settled with an undermining of our
constitutional norms and institutions.
Steve
Scalise: '75% of the Entire Congress' Not Allowed to Enter Schiff's Secret Impeachment Chamber. [Quoting House
Minority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA)]: Our members are really angry about this and want to highlight what's going
on. They want to stop this Soviet-style process. If they are going to impeach the president, do it in clear
view. Everybody ought to be held accountable. Don't hide behind one guy, Adam Schiff, and all these other members
who want to have a justification for impeaching the president because they don't like results of the 2016 election, are going
to fall back on that in secret. We're all elected members of Congress. We get held accountable every two years
for what we do. The things we do are done in public, not in secret. That's got to stop, and we need to continue
to highlight it. People back home know, too. One of the good things yesterday is that the press actually paid
attention for the first time to how bad a hijacked Soviet-style process this is.
The Real Coup.
Starting in the 1930s, politicians began stealthily transferring power from themselves, the elected representatives of we the
people, to unelected bureaucrats and judges. We the people can't get rid of bureaucrats or judges via elections, so
they can operate without our consent with impunity. To get rid of them requires a significant majority of honest
politicians in Congress, which hasn't been manifest for quite some time. The politicians say the depredations of the
administrators and the dishonest judges are not their, the politicians', fault, so they mislead voters into re-electing the
very politicians who refuse to punish administrators and judges who violate their oath of office. Much has been written
about the rise of the administrative state, but the simple reality is that most of the rules and edicts from Washington that
we the people have to follow aren't voted on or approved by the people we elect. Rather, they're ushered in by nameless
and faceless government employees.
O'Rourke's America.
With apologies to Margaret Atwood and a thousand other dystopian novelists, we do not have to theorize about what an
American police state would look like, because we know what it looks like: the airport, that familiar totalitarian
environment where Americans are disarmed, stripped of their privacy, divested of their freedom of speech, herded around like
livestock, and bullied by bovine agents of "security" in a theatrical process that has an 85 percent failure rate because
it isn't designed as a security-screening protocol at all but as a jobs program for otherwise unemployable morons.
Nothing Constitutional
About An Impeachment Process With Secret Evidence And Secret Witnesses. The forceful and thorough rebuke that
White House Counsel Pat Cipollone delivered to the "impeachment inquiry" will go down in history as the definitive document
defeating an attempted coup. Over the course of eight scathing pages in a letter last week, Cipollone thoroughly deconstructed
the absurd "Ukrainegate" narrative that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (Calif.) has tried to construct.
Democrats
using impeachment to consolidate power. The Democrats are clearly planning something with the illegitimate and
ever changing impeachment operation. While they may think they're clever and strategic, their modus operandi has never
been more obvious. The impeachment inquiry has never been about shady White House leakers or fabricated
whistleblowers. It is entirely about a Legislative Branch under the control and used at the discretion of the
Democratic Party. The end goal is to abolish the separation of powers, or checks and balances, as outlined in the
Constitution.
Tlaib:
Dems Have Discussed Arresting White House Officials Who Refuse to Comply With Subpoenas. Freshman Congresswoman
Rashida Tlaib (D-MN) told the Deadline Detroit that House Democrats have talked about arresting and detaining members
of President Donald Trump's administration who fail to comply with congressional subpoenas. While this is something
Democrats are contemplating, Tlaib said this is "uncharted territory." "If they were to detain someone, where would they
go and have them detained so that they can comply with the subpoenas?" Tlaib said. "There have been actual serious
conversations about what the logistics would look like ... if we did have to force someone through a court order to come before
the Congressional committee," she explained. "This is pretty uncharted territory for many of us and even for Congress."
The Editor says...
There's a reason it's "uncharted territory." You're not supposed to go there!
Democrats'
Treatment of Trump During "Impeachment" Is How They'd Like to Treat Each of Us in Court. I want you to
think about how the Pelosi-Schiff impeachment process is being conducted. Imagine a criminal trial or civil
action during which the "Democrat Prosecution" — the prosecutors — conduct themselves as follows:
• Prosecutors issue repeated, baldfaced lies to the public
• Prosecutors secretly solicit accusers
• Prosecutors collaborate with accusers to assist with the creation of a "complaint"
• All testimony occurs in secret
• No transcripts are made public
• No defense counsel are permitted
• The defense is prevented from calling witnesses or issuing subpoenas
• The accused is assumed guilty and must prove him- or herself innocent
• The accused is afforded no due process [...]
If they had their way, Democrats would treat each of you like this.
Will We
Ever Prosecute? Imagine that the local cops know that a gang member, named William, broke into the pawn shop
and stole guns, jewelry, and money. William's fingerprints, film image, and DNA add to the hard evidence log. The
owner knows it; the prosecutor knows it; William's gang associates know it. But he is not arrested. Nearby
shopkeepers and neighborhood mothers are asking why he is walking the street. No one explains it; mum's the word.
Could it be there is a grand plan to take out the gang's leaders? No one knows; mum's the word. Shopkeepers and
residents are about to give up and start moving away from the area, and no one asks them to stay the course.
Fast-forward to today's still vocal Obama gang. Why no indictments? Mum's the word. Can anyone hold to the
faith in American justice? Those who support the rule of law feel like Charlie Brown trying to kick a football.
So Who Went To Jail? If you or I did
something like this we'd be rotting in a prison cell right now. They're not. The reason why not is obvious.
Police
chief ordered ticket quotas to raise revenue, N.J. cops say in whistleblower suit. Six police officers in
Mercer County have filed a whistleblower lawsuit against Lawrence Township and its police chief claiming they were ordered to
write more tickets and impound as many cars as possible to meet an illegal quota. The suit, filed Monday [10/7/2019] in
Mercer County Superior Court, claims Lawrence police administrators ordered officers to write tickets and impound cars "every
time they are eligible and without discretion." The reason was that revenue was down, according to the suit.
More
about radar traps.
The
Ukraine Hoax is About Protecting the Side Hustle. What? There is no 28th Amendment you say? Well,
this one isn't actually written down or ratified but it's very real. It explains how much of Washington actually
works. If it were reduced to writing, it might read, "Thou shalt not mess with another swamp creature's side-hustle."
The 28th amendment might have originated after the 1978 ABSCAM scandal in which one senator and six congressmen accepted
or solicited bribes from undercover FBI agents. What a bunch of amateurs! Everyone in Washington knows that you
don't act as your own bag man when selling favors! Corruption in modern D.C. is shaped like a triangle. A person
or entity seeking a favor doesn't hand the money directly to the politician or public official. Instead, the money goes
to a trusted family relation under a vague "consulting" or "speaking" arrangement. This golden triangle of corruption
appears over and over again in the Russia collusion hoax.
DNI
Declassifies FISA Judge James Boasberg 2018 Ruling — FBI Conducted "Tens of Thousands" of Unauthorized NSA
Database Queries. Background: In April 2017 the DNI released a FISA report written by Presiding Judge
Rosemary Collery that showed massive abuse, via unauthorized searches of the NSA database, in the period of November 2015
through May 2016. Judge Collyer's report specifically identified search query increases tied to the 2016 presidential
primary. Two years of research identified this process as the DOJ/FBI and IC using the NSA database to query information
related to political candidates, specifically Donald Trump.
Team
Trump: We'll sue Minneapolis over $530,000 shakedown by liberal mayor. As of now, Donald Trump is
scheduled to appear at the Target Center in Minneapolis on Thursday [10/10/2019], part of his plan to flip Minnesota to the
GOP in 2020. The city wants to make sure he pays for the privilege — through the nose, apparently. The city
sent a $530,000 security bill to the venue for Trump's rally, which then passed it along to Team Trump, which then promptly
threatened to sue the city over its "outrageous abuse of power."
Minneapolis' liberal
mayor trying to 'bully' President Trump out of Minnesota, says head of police union. The mayor of Minneapolis,
a Democrat, is trying to "antagonize" and "bully" President Trump to discourage him from coming to the historically blue
state, a police union leader said Tuesday. Lieutenant Bob Kroll, president of the Police Officers Federation of
Minneapolis, said on "Fox & Friends" that Mayor Jacob Frey is discriminating against Trump ahead of his upcoming rally at the
Target Center on Thursday [10/3/2019]. Kroll's claims are in line with Trump's campaign manager, Brad Parscale, who
accused Frey of "abuse of power" over a proposed $530,000 security fee to use the arena.
Report
Shows FBI Official Received Sports Tickets From CNN Reporter And Lied About It To Investigators. The FBI's top
press officer during the Hillary Clinton and Trump-Russia investigations accepted tickets to a Washington Nationals game from
a CNN correspondent and lied about it repeatedly during interviews with the Justice Department's inspector general, according
to a report obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. Michael Kortan, who served as assistant director of public
affairs, displayed a "lack of candor" during multiple interviews under oath with the DOJ watchdog about how he obtained the
tickets, who he went with, and whether he reimbursed the CNN journalist, according to the report.
President
Trump Is Absolutely Right To Assume Federal Agencies Are Against Him. Federal employees are anything but
neutral administrators of the law. Fully 95 percent of donations from those working for agencies went to Hillary
Clinton in 2016. And a web of civil service laws built over the past century effectively inures them to the consequences of
defying the elected and appointed officials tasked by our political process with captaining the ship of state. It takes
up to two years to fire a federal worker, even those convicted of felonies while on the job. Four different appeal
routes and a flowchart's worth of avenues prevent most managers from even trying to rid themselves of incompetent or outright
insubordinate employees. "At the DOJ, we can't really get fired," a career employee chuckles over coffee in an
undercover video from Project Veritas, while outlining how she uses her position to undermine the administration. As
early as the winter of the president's inauguration, federal employees were already publicly trading tips on how to "#resist"
from within.
Mike
Pompeo: Democrats Violated the Rules: Told State Dept. Officials "Not to Contact" Legal Counsel before
Testimony. [Quoting Secretary of State Mike Pompeo:] ["]Back to first principles. The predicate of your
final question about objecting to what the folks on Capitol Hill have asked. It's fundamentally not true. What we
objected to was the demands that were put that deeply violate the fundamental principle of separation of powers. They
contacted State Department employees directly. They told them NOT to contact legal counsel at the State Department.
That's been reported to us. They said the the State Department wouldn't be able to be present. [..."]
Stand. We watched
the passage of Obamacare at 1:38 am on the day before Christmas Eve in 2009. We watched the Senate, then the House
attempt passing Amnesty in 2014. We know exactly how it passed, and we know exactly why it passed. We don't need to
stand around talking about it. We know what lies hidden behind "cloture" and the UniParty schemes. We watched the
2009 $900+ billion Stimulus Bill being spent each year, every year, for seven consecutive years. Omnibus, Porkulous,
QE1, QE2, Bailouts, Crony-Capitalism. We know exactly how this works, and we know exactly why this ruse is maintained.
Rep.
Ratcliffe: Democrats Trying to 'Undo One Election and... Influence the Next One'. Rep. John Ratcliffe
(R-Texas) on Monday [9/30/2019] called the Democrats' three-year drive for impeachment "outrageous." "I mean, there are
now more versions of Democratic impeachment than there are Microsoft Window versions," Ratcliffe told Fox News's Mario
Bartiromo. He said Democrats are trying to "undo one election and at the same time influence the next one."
Senate
GOP Should Give Democrats A Dose Of Their Own Medicine. Democrats are searching, desperately, for anything to
validate their push for impeachment. They're only missing any evidence to justify the foregone conclusion they're
gearing everything toward. It's amazing what a political party will do when they lack a candidate with charisma and an
agenda with support. With that in mind, Democrats have embraced the ancient art of "making [stuff] up." Hearings
with no questions asked to elicit any information, just political speeches delivered one soundbite at a time. Flat-out
lies and fantasy portrayed as "parody" broadcast across the country with no "journalistic" pushback.
No
One Noticed When Clinton and Obama Abused Whistleblowers. Here are two unfortunate realities: the first is
that whistleblowing becomes virtuous only when a Republican is the one being whistled on; the second is that deep state
Democrats have a habit of manipulating whistleblower laws when it suits their purposes. I could write a book —
I've written several, in fact — on whistleblowers the major media chose to ignore. The two examples that follow,
one regarding Bill Clinton, the other Barack Obama, should give a sense of how the worms in Washington turn.
Ruling Class vs.
'The Others'. Should any of us violate the laws, we can expect to have the book thrown at us. But for
them, it's more a slap on the wrist, if anything at all. We see this in the behavior of the Clintons, deep state
actors, and even the Bidens. No one seriously thinks that Hunter Biden's Ukrainian and Chinese business "activities"
are above board. But even more troubling, consider that a sitting vice president of the United States was potentially
involved in pay-to-play with foreign nations. The ruling class apparently believes the law is whatever it says it
is. It is whatever is convenient for them.
30
of The Biggest Lies & Hoaxes Perpetrated on The American People. [Scroll down] There are so many
hoaxes, illusions, and lies that have been perpetrated not just on America, but across the Globe, for eons. We could go
on and on and do an entire dissertation on the Federal Reserve alone. We could get into manufactured wars, technology
suppression, patent interference, the space program and outer space, or medical cures that would surely drain them of their
power and endless streams of cash. Or, we could go down the rabbit hole on the Red Cross, or the creepy rituals
performed by some of these "elite," or their illuminati symbolism. But, you get the idea. They are about power,
control, money, children, AI, transhumanism, and a one world governance, and they don't care who they harm along the way.
Donor
who gave $45K to elect sheriff got coveted gun permit from her office. A manager for a prominent private
security firm that provides bodyguards to Silicon Valley executives received a concealed-gun permit from the Santa Clara
County Sheriff's Office months after he made a $45,000 contribution to an independent committee supporting Sheriff Laurie
Smith's 2018 re-election, newly disclosed records show. The campaign contribution is one focus of an investigation by
the Santa Clara County district attorney's office into whether the sheriff gave out the coveted gun permits in exchange for
campaign support, sources familiar with the probe have told The [San Francisco] Chronicle.
Hearings
Expose How Kamala Harris Used Prosecutorial Power To Benefit Abortion Businesses That Support Her Campaigns.
More than four years ago, former California attorney general Kamala Harris launched an investigation into the work of citizen
journalists and abortion activists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, who discovered Planned Parenthood's trafficking of
aborted baby body parts. [...] Not only was the district attorney's office unable to produce evidence of probable cause,
however, it instead became increasingly clear that the charges were not brought forth based on a real case but as part of a
political prosecution on behalf of Planned Parenthood. Cross examination of witnesses, abortionists, and investigators
revealed not just admissions of the violent crimes Daleiden set out to expose with his undercover videos in question, but
that this is a textbook example of corporate donors and corrupt politicians ignoring civil liberties and using their power to
prey upon political opponents.
The Truth about Huey Long.
[Scroll down] He was among the earliest American politicians advocating for redistribution of wealth, insisting that
true equality would only be achieved when big corporations — in his case, Standard Oil — were forced to
pay higher taxes to fund a more robust welfare state. In public, Huey P. Long boasted of his populist policy bona
fides, hiding his well-to-do upbringing to convince Louisiana's poor and working class that he understood their plight.
But in private, Long lived lavishly at taxpayer expense. In speeches, he condemned J. P. Morgan Jr. for owning
100 suits, which Long said he stole off the backs of working people. Meanwhile, Long used state funds to outfit a
luxurious wardrobe of as many suits or more. Deciding that the existing governor's mansion wasn't grand enough for him,
Long demanded that a new one be constructed. When the legislature wouldn't approve the funds for the project, Long simply
ordered construction to begin, and it did.
President
Obama Weaponized Government — Phase Two Was Positioned to Monetize Government. President Obama's
team used the DOJ, CIA, FBI and IRS to target their opposition. The intelligence apparatus was weaponized; one small
example that scratches the surface is the FBI/NSA database exploitation. Black files on DC politicians, private sector
groups and individuals facilitating leverage, and we are still seeing the ramifications. [...] Big multinational interests,
Big Pharma, Big Ag, Big Global Banking interests, etc, were exclusively supporting both President Obama and candidate
Clinton. The domestic politics of the U.S. were/are tools toward an end; and, so long as the person occupying the oval
office did not interfere with Big Club objectives, they too would benefit financially. It is also obvious the
opposition to President Trump, those who are really coordinating and manipulating the grassroots sheeple opposition, are
these same multinational interests.
The
suicide of the House is complete. Over time, the House has had one major constitutional duty: the
budget. All spending and taxation bills must originate in the House. But in all likelihood, the decline of the
House started in 1995, when the newly elected Republican Congress under Newt Gingrich caved in to media pressure to give Bill
Clinton his bloated budget. Since then, no House has even attempted to control the deficits or the debt. For
eight years under George W. Bush, the rationale was to fund the War on Terror. Then, under Barack Obama, the Democrat
House had no intention of dealing with the deficits or the debt. For eight years, under both Democrats and Republicans,
nothing was done to recapture the budget process. Continuing resolutions were the rule of the day. Enter Nancy
Pelosi, whose Congress openly and energetically vowed to do utterly nothing in the way of actual legislation, but instead to
investigate and otherwise obstruct President Donald Trump. This marked the final transition of the House into irrelevance.
Are American
Voters Helpless? Many Americans know what the problems are, but they are helpless in solving them alone.
Why? Because we are a representative republic and expect our elected representatives to know the problems and solve
them. [...] Aren't these people elected to keep America safe? Don't these elected officials work for their
constituents? Haven't they sworn that they "will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all
enemies, foreign and domestic" and that they "will bear true faith and allegiance to the same?" They did, they promised
and they lied. So, now what? We, the People, elect our leaders, and must hold them accountable. So, what
happens when they refuse to stand by their oath of office and defend the Constitution? Fire them, you might say!!
That's one way. How can we be sure the next guy isn't any better or different than the former? The reality is, We
the People live in a fantasy world and are under the assumption that everything will be all right. But it won't be.
Slaying
the imperial dragon. The administrative state, sometimes called the Deep State, undermines the country.
D.C. is the hub of concentrated power used to control the country down to the most basic level. If citizens allow D.C.
to determine the size of their commodes, they will allow most any kind of centralized control. In effect, D.C. is an
Imperial City ruling by edict. This is supported by the fact that the richest five counties in the country are located
around DC. These areas are where the imperial elite live — highly paid bureaucrats in lifetime jobs, lobbyists,
think-tankers and the good friends of lobbyists in Congress along with mainstream media enablers. Congress is broken
and has no intention of revoking the Imperial City now or in the foreseeable future.
The
Deep State Will Face Justice Soon! Right? [Scroll down] Then we have that pathetic excuse for a
human being, James Comey, gloating over the I.G. report that issued a verbal slap on the wrist for his infractions.
Comey: "And to all those who've spent two years talking about me 'going to jail' or being a 'liar and a leaker' —
ask yourselves why you still trust people who gave you bad info for so long, including the president." But no worries:
Comey will pay when the FISA abuse report comes out. Or not: Washington insiders are now foreshadowing immunity for the
entire cabal, saying that, "sadly," these lawbreakers probably won't be prosecuted. That's not sad; it's terrifying.
If we can't indict and prosecute these clowns who have conspired to overthrow our government, who have committed the most egregious
political crime in history, then stick a fork in our Republic. We're done. But what can we do? Actually, this
whole strung out Spygate nightmare is an exercise to ensure we do nothing. Washington isn't a swamp; it's a sewer, and the
rats that inhabit it are never going to allow their comrades to be indicted.
Cosmic Injustice.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg used to sermonize to the nation about gun-control, global warming, the perils of super-sized soft
drinks, smoking, and fatty-foods in his efforts to virtue signal his moral fides — even as his New York was nearly
paralyzed by the 2010 blizzard that trapped millions of his city's residents in their homes due to inept and incompetent city
efforts to remove snow. [...] New Yorkers in 2011 were worried more about the piles of snow on the sidewalks than they felt
threatened by 32-ounce Cokes — while realizing that no snow blocked either the Bloomberg official or private residence.
The
Bogus Story That Launched a 'Collusion' Probe. The George Papadopoulos Origin Story has never added up.
It has been portrayed as the Big Bang, the Magic Moment that started the FBI's investigation of "collusion" — a
suspected election-theft conspiracy between Donald Trump's campaign and Vladimir Putin's regime. But if the young
energy-sector analyst had actually emerged in early 2016 as the key to proving Trump-Russia espionage, you would think the
FBI might have gotten around to interviewing him before January 27, 2017 — i.e., a week after President Trump
had been inaugurated, and six months after the Bureau formally opened its "Crossfire Hurricane" probe.
14
FBI Officials Leaked to the Media, Only Four Were Fired, Judicial Watch Reveals. On Tuesday, Judicial Watch
announced it had received records showing that the FBI referred 14 employees to the Office of Professional Responsibility
(OPR) for leaking sensitive or classified information. Of those 14 employees, only four were fired. "No wonder
the FBI was leaking so profusely. Collectively, these documents show a show lenient treatment for evident criminal
activity. Only four of the 14 employees found to have made an unauthorized disclosure were dismissed from the FBI,"
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. "And even though Andrew McCabe was fired and referred for a
criminal investigation for his leak, no prosecution has taken place."
Mayor
de Blasio ordered NYPD Executive Protection Unit to move his daughter out of a Brooklyn apartment, sources say.
Mayor de Blasio has his own moving company - the NYPD. Hizzoner ordered members of his troubled NYPD security detail to
move his daughter out of an apartment in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, multiple sources told the Daily News. The move happened
roughly one year ago under cover of night, the sources said. Chiara de Blasio lived in the apartment at 4th Ave. and
56th St. for roughly two years, according to a source close to de Blasio's Executive Protection Unit. The move was an
abuse of city resources, that source said.
Democrat
Jerry Nadler Used Government Resources to Try and Deport American Citizen Sebastian Gorka. Since telling
American citizens who immigrated to the United States to "go back" to their original countries is in the news, it's important
to remind everyone about despicable behavior from elected Democrat officials on the issue. When President Trump tapped
Hungarian-American immigrant Sebastian Gorka to serve in the White House, Nadler called for an investigation into how he
became an American citizen and used government resources to get him deported.
Government Regulations:
The Princess and Pea. In "The Princess and the Pea," an old queen proves that a midnight traveler is a true
princess by hiding a pea under an almost unbelievable number of mattresses and down bedclothes. Because she is indeed a
real princess, she feels the pea and the prince marries her. It is an awful story, one I don't suggest telling your
kids — unless you change the old queen to the old bureaucrat, the prince to the politician, the visiting princess
to an entrepreneur, and the ending to a riot from the entrepreneurs after they figure out the pea was put there on
purpose. Then, although it is still an unpleasant tale, it will at least teach your kids a lesson about the way
government works. They manufacture a problem, and then they create a regulation to "solve" the problem.
In
California, don't call them 'public servants,' call them 'the government gang'. As a Californian of more than
three decades, I have watched the highways deteriorate, with no new construction of freeways (or reservoirs for that matter)
while the population soared. I have watched the schools go from bad to horrendous. Meanwhile, taxes have soared
to levels that are driving out middle class taxpayers in very large numbers. The rest of us who are not members of the
government gang watch as the gang members get rich.
Is
America Still the Land of the Free? Although the number is disputed by some, even President Ronald Reagan once
noted that there are roughly 20,000 laws regarding gun control alone, and that's just the federal illegitimate "laws." So
many other "laws" exist that it's been estimated that the average American commits approximately three felonies each day.
This makes the authorities' task simple if for any reason they wish to victimize you. Just ask the Bundy Family, Hammond
Father and Son, LaVoy Finicum's Family, Lt. General Michael Flynn, and Michael Cohen and a few others.
The
Dems' 2020 Election Strategy. [Scroll down] The Swamp, we now know, cannot be drained because it is not a
marsh or everglade but an ocean of sludge filled with plastic straws, unrecyclable paper, Strzok-Page love notes, and 33,000
bleached messages about yoga and wedding dresses. The System betrays all. Half of us vote for a liberal like
Clinton, only to be presented with an end to Welfare, a tough crime bill, and a dry-cleaning bill for a dress stain. At
least he delivered Midnight Basketball. The other half of us, deep-rooted patriotic conservatives, vote for Republicans
and end up with Justices like David Souter and Harry Blackmun, with wage and price controls, and with international
"free-trade" agreements that all-but-destroy our steel and aluminum industries, while decimating our manufacturing.
FBI
Appears to Have Defrauded the Court in the Manafort Case. The FBI appears to have regularly ignored factual
material and used planted newspaper articles as secondary sources, even when they knew the documents were probably
fake. This was the FBI under Jim Comey and Andrew McCabe. If true, it's especially ironic since they are so
arrogant, self-righteous, and denigrating of others who they dislike. A new exposé by John Solomon points to
evidence that the investigation against Paul Manafort, Donald Trump's short-lived campaign manager, was based on evidence
they knew was false.
How
municipalities in St. Louis County, Mo., profit from poverty. [Scroll down] Some of the towns in
St. Louis County can derive 40 percent or more of their annual revenue from the petty fines and fees collected by their
municipal courts. A majority of these fines are for traffic offenses, but they can also include fines for fare-hopping
on MetroLink (St. Louis's light rail system), loud music and other noise ordinance violations, zoning violations for
uncut grass or unkempt property, violations of occupancy permit restrictions, trespassing, wearing "saggy pants," business
license violations and vague infractions such as "disturbing the peace" or "affray" that give police officers a great deal of
discretion to look for other violations.
The Orwellian Attack on Section
101. [Scroll down] Let's be absolutely clear: this bill, and the coalition of leeches pushing it, is
anti-American garbage. It is impossible to sustain the rule of law surrounding intellectual property in a world where
almost everything can not only be patented, but also be the subject of contradictory, overlapping patents, with the only way
to tell which of those patents is legitimate being a legal war of all against all. And while the patent bloodsuckers
like to wrap their policies in the mantle of property rights, a world where those property rights are the subject of endless
haggling is one where the concept of property rights will come to be seen as useless, when properly applied, it should be the
fruit of innovation.
The Selective
Prosecution of Kellyanne Conway. [Scroll down] What utter garbage! What member of any administration
since any of us have been alive could not be accused of making political comments while in the White House, overtly or
covertly? At least when they're doing it overtly we can see what they're up to. Kudos to Kellyanne for that.
So why Conway and why now? Well, first we might want to know the names of those behind this smear.
Feds
gone wild: DOJ's stunning inability to prosecute its own bad actors. One was caught red-handed engaged in
nepotism. Another, a lawyer no less, admitted to shoplifting at a Marine barracks store. A third leaked sealed
court information to the news media. And a fourth engaged in fraud by turning a government garage into a personal
repair shop. Four cases, all solved in the past month, with suspects who cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of
dollars and significant breaches of public trust. But these weren't your everyday perps. All were U.S. Department
of Justice (DOJ) employees who are supposed to catch other criminals while working for the FBI, the Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) and U.S. attorneys' offices. Instead, they broke the law or violated the rules. And all
managed to escape prosecution, despite their proven transgressions.
Free Steve
Stockman. My husband, former Congressman Steve Stockman who twice served southeast Texas districts in the U.S.
House of Representatives, was a bold, outspoken opponent of the Clinton and Obama administrations during his two terms in
office. Now he sits in jail after being prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice. [...] Steve Stockman has spent
most of his adult life working in one way or another to aggressively fight the political left's agenda to transform America
into a socialist country. Yet I watched as he was led away to prison as a common criminal when we both knew he was
innocent of all the trumped up, vague, and highly confusing charges.
An obvious violation of the Eighth Amendment:
Why
is Paul Manafort off to Rikers? The decision to move Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman who was
sentenced earlier this year to nearly seven years in prison in connection with two federal cases, from the decent federal
prison to which he was sentenced to solitary confinement to the dangerous hell hole that is New York City's Rikers Island
seems abusive and possibly illegal. I know Rikers well having spent time there visiting numerous defendants accused of
murder and other violent crimes. It is a terrible place that no one should ever be sent to. It should be shut
down. It is so bad that defendants often plead guilty, even if they have defensible cases, simply to move to a safer
and better prison.
Legal
experts stunned by DA's 'barbaric' move to send Manafort to Rikers Island. The decision to send one of the
highest-profile Trump campaign members prosecuted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller to New York CIty's infamous Rikers Island
jail has stunned many in the legal community — and even some Democrats not normally sympathetic toward Mueller
targets. Fox News reported earlier this week that Paul Manafort, who served as President Trump's campaign chairman, is
being transferred from a federal prison to New York City's Rikers Island, notorious for gang violence and housing some of the
most infamous violent offenders. A state judge ordered the transfer at the request of New York City District Attorney
Cy Vance, Jr., who is pursuing a case against Manafort involving alleged residential mortgage fraud, falsified business
records and more. Criminal defense attorneys swiftly slammed the decision.
Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez: Paul Manafort "should be released" from "torture" of solitary confinement.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Wednesday knocked reports that President Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort
was going to be moved into solitary confinement in her district, calling the punishment "torture." "Paul Manafort is
being sent to solitary confinement in my district — Rikers Island. A prison sentence is not a license for gov torture
and human rights violations. That's what solitary confinement is. Manafort should be released, along with all
people being held in solitary," the New York Democrat tweeted. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has been a vocal critic of
prisons' use of solitary confinement.
Deep
State: First, the attempted coup. Now, the political prisoner. What we are all looking at is how
criminal Deep State is, demonstrating how it can use the levers of power to turn a first-world country into a banana
republic. We aren't seeing normal things from these people, we are seeing some incredible abuses of power.
Manafort was convicted earlier and is doing time in Pennsylvania for white collar crimes around taxable income and foreign
agent registration. These are crimes few are ever prosecuted for, but they were real enough. Now he's a wedge
player in a new and very dirty deep-state political game.
Update:
Paul
Manafort [is] not going to Rikers Island, will remain in federal custody after DOJ rejects move, source says. The
Justice Department has rejected New York County District Attorney Cy Vance Jr.'s attempt to have former Trump campaign
chairman Paul Manafort transferred to the notorious Rikers Island prison complex ahead of his pending state court trial, amid
questions as to why the move was even contemplated in the first place, Fox News is told. Fox News first reported
earlier this month that a New York State judge ordered the transfer at Vance's request. However, because Manafort has
been convicted on federal charges, any attempt to move him out of federal custody must be approved by Deputy Attorney General
Jeffrey Rosen. On Monday [6/17/2019], Rosen denied the attempt, effectively keeping Manafort in federal custody.
The Editor says...
Earlier coverage of this story indicated that Mr. Manafort had already been moved
[1]
[2]
or "will be sent" there
[3]
or "could happen as early as Thursday [6/6/2019]."
[4]
Manhattan
prosecutors cave in on Manafort Rikers scheme after DoJ note. Maybe we really do have a Department of Justice
that's serious about reforming itself. Attorney General William Barr deserves applause for this one. [...] Now,
Manafort is not a guy anyone needs to feel much sympathy for for being in a federal prison, given that he committed crimes on
his tax reportage that most of us would never think of doing. But the Deep State has shown itself to be far, far more
vile than Manafort ever was.
Getting
the Word Out on our Failed Ruling Class. The problem for Britain's old working class, as for our U.S. white
working class dying of despair, is that the glorious mechanical apparatus of progressive administration has no soul. As
Chris Arnade of Back Row America says, the lower class interface with the welfare state is with "sterile institutions that
chew them up and then spit them out." We are talking about the courts, the prisons, welfare offices, "rehab clinics and
detox centers, law offices". The fact is all government institutions are like that, including armies, which are
expressly designed to suck up young men and send them out to fight the regime's wars. In the process millions of young
men get chewed up, and the lucky ones get spat out. Hello liberals! It doesn't matter what government program we
are talking about, whether evil colonialist militarism, or domestic activist colonialism; in the end it comes down to
chew-up-ology and spit-out-ology. Because government is not compassion; it is force.
Maxine
Waters Let Obama's Cat Out of the Bag in 2013. Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), one of the left wing's
most prominent and vocal figures, has a 30-year history of ill advised, frothing rhetoric. "Auntie Maxine" is atop no
one's list of vise-lipped confidantes, yet because of her prominence, she is clued in on much of the darker machinations of
the Democratic Party and its backers. Occasionally, she reveals more than intended. February 2013 was one of
those times.
Tyrannical
Government Hunts Down Parents Of 3-Year-Old, Forces Child To Undergo Chemo, Then Strips Parents Of Their Custody. When
there is clearly neglect of a child, someone must step in and do something to ensure that the child is protected, but many times,
I have become aware that the state quite often violates its jurisdiction and inserts itself into something it has no knowledge
of nor business being involved in. This is the situation involving 3-year-old Noah McAdams and his parents, Taylor and
Josh. Not only were the parents reported by Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital to authorities, but the government
forced them to reluctantly submit their little boy to chemotherapy and later would strip them of their parental rights and
custody of their son. However, surprise! The media failed to report the entire story and made the parents out
to look like criminals.
3
Times Media Falsely Claimed Russiagate Transparency Would End The Republic. As the House Permanent Select
Committee on Intelligence prepared to release information about abuse of the secret court that permit the government to spy
on American citizens, the Justice Department released a letter to the press saying the action was "extraordinarily reckless,"
would be "damaging" to "national security," and would risk "damage to our intelligence community or the important work it
does in safeguarding the American people." [...] Justice and the FBI also have a pattern of redacting huge swaths of reports
and letters to and from Congress as part of their oversight investigation into the spying on the Trump campaign. When
the redactions are lessened, they reveal not sensitive information that affects national security so much as embarrassing
details about how Justice and FBI have conducted business.
Investigation
Finds Thousands of Regulations Issued By Career Bureaucrats In Violation of the Constitution. [Scroll down] Recognizing
that career bureaucrats signing off on rules is Constitutionally problematic, PLF investigated the rule-making process at the Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS). Looking at all rules issued by HHS from 2001 to 2017, we found that 71 percent of the 2,952 rules
we reviewed were unconstitutional. The worst offender within HHS is FDA, where 98 percent of rules are unconstitutional.
Many of these are highly technical rules that govern scientific drug and food development; others are significant regulations that carry
huge costs and have a substantive impact felt by businesses and consumers. But in virtually all cases, these rules were enacted by
government employees who lacked the proper Constitutional authority to do so. What this practice represents is an erosion of
government accountability, which paves the way to an erosion of liberty and, ultimately, government abuse.
Sharyl
Attkisson: How Obama "Surveilled" aka Spied On Me. Sharyl Attkisson has a shocking story to tell about
how she was spied on by our government. She discovered shocking things that had been done in order to surveil her
activities on because she did government watchdog reporting. She goes into detail below about the measures that were
taken to spy on her just like James Rosen of Fox News was spied on: [Video clip]
Patriot
Act enabled Russia collusion hoax and further Deep State treachery. In October of 2001, and following 9/11,
President George W. Bush told the nation that the Patriot Act would "give intelligence and law enforcement officials
important new tools to fight a present danger." It was assumed — foolishly — that the threat was
from terrorism. But when and as reauthorized, the Patriot Act during the administration of President Barack Obama,
Obama claimed that tweaks to the act would allow US law enforcement to better target homegrown "lone wolves." Again, the
assumption — a foolish one — assumed that the targets would largely be self-motivated terrorists.
Terrorists like Boston Marathon bombers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev. But leave it to official Washington to stretch
any legal definitions beyond their original, intended scope.
What
Does It Mean To Be Moral In the Public Area? We're at a time in our country when most of our elected officials
apparently have forgotten their responsibilities. In truth, U.S. politicians in their capacity as politicians have one
moral imperative: to promote, protect, and advance the interests of the American people they represent. Everything else
is secondary. To do anything other than promote the interests of the American people — or worse, to promote
behavior that is detrimental to the interests of Americans — is, in fact, immoral. So what does it
mean, then, to be a moral public official? [...] The first concern of any elected official in the United States should be for
the freedom, safety, and welfare of the American people before all others, not the personal morality of their lives.
U.S.
Intelligence [Agencies are] Institutionally Politicized Toward Democrats. The CIA and other U.S. intelligence
agencies have become bastions of political liberals and the pro-Democratic Party views of intelligence personnel have
increased under President Donald Trump, according to a journal article by a former CIA analyst. John Gentry, who spent
12 years as a CIA analyst, criticized former senior intelligence leaders, including CIA Director John Brenan, Director of
National Intelligence James Clapper, and former deputy CIA director Michael Morell, along with former analyst Paul Pillar,
for breaking decades-long prohibitions of publicly airing their liberal political views in attacking Trump.
Why
Democrats Freaked Out When Barr Said The Trump Campaign Was Spied On. There are two reasons the political media
establishment is growing increasingly hostile towards Attorney General William Barr: First, he serves under President
Donald Trump. Second, he is not only the messenger of the demise of the Russiagate conspiracy theory that the Deep
State and its aiders, abettors, and enablers in the political media establishment worked so hard to perpetuate, but he could
also be the source of the demise of the establishment itself, if he ends up exposing their whole sordid affair. Should
Barr conduct a thorough investigation of the Russiagate investigators, and the associated leakers and colluders, and dispense
justice to the fullest extent of the law, it would drive a stake through the heart of the establishment writ large by
demolishing the unjust system of double standards from which it has benefited, while punishing its foes.
The
Corruption and Influence of Jessie K Liu. What do the following four points have in common? •
The manipulated DC legal case surrounding the Awan brothers; and how they escaped full accountability, likely due to
need to protect politicians. (House of Representatives) The sweetheart plea deal. • The
manipulated DC legal case surrounding SSCI Security Director James Wolfe; and how he was allowed to plea only to lying to
investigators when the evidence was clear from the outset how he leaked classified information to his journalist
concubine. Again, likely due to the need to protect politicians. (SSCI, Senate) The sweetheart plea deal.
• The manipulated DC legal case surrounding Obama lawyer Greg Craig; and how he escaped accountability for
FARA violations by running out the statute of limitations and burying Mueller's evidence for 18 months. Again, likely
due to the need to protect politicians (Obama White House). Sweetheart double standards. • The
manipulated DC legal case, a non-filing, surrounding former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe for lying to INSD investigators
about his media leaks. Again, likely due to the need to protect the administrative state.
Government 'Oversight'
Is a Very Bad Joke. [Scroll down] The 67-page audit of [the California] DMV found a "reactive culture
that has adversely impacted the field office customer experience," outdated management structures, a third of customer-service
windows closed even as people waited in lines that went around the DMV field offices — and pretty much
everything else that anyone who has visited a California DMV office would know. The audit suggested changes, but
the agency reacted in normal fashion and requested more money. DMV offices, which I've described as a cross between bus
stations and Soviet bread lines, have been like this since time immemorial (although they're better in some states) and will
always be this way. We must deal with the agency if we want to drive. There are no customers that must be
satisfied because we have no other choice.
Nebraska
Flooding: When the Government Cares More about Birds than People. [Scroll down] Until 2004, the
government kept its end of the bargain, and flooding, while still a danger, was dramatically lessened in frequency and
severity by the prudent operation of the dam system and the mechanical restructuring of the river itself. That last
paragraph, while perfectly reasonable to normal folks, is cause for outrage and seething anger among the increasingly radical
environmentalist left, which is enamored of a dream of "rewilding" vast sections of North America via the "recovery" of river
basins. One might ask, "Recovery from what?" In a word, the answer is "man." Environmental groups like the
Sierra Club and American Rivers advocate the wholesale removal of dams, even if it requires the forced relocation of millions
of people and their businesses. They seek a continent with untamed rivers, devoid of human interference with the perceived
"natural processes" of ebb and flood. At this level of green-think, it is more religion than science, with devotion
measured in antipathy for the needs of mankind whenever there is conflict with nature.
Social
Justice Prosecutors. [Scroll down] Individuals from this new class of legal eagles have advanced in all
branches of government and at all levels — local, state, and federal. They have attended notable law
schools, they are African-American, and they are hellbent on ushering in an era of seeking what today's liberal law schools
are pouring into their students by the bucket full — not "justice" but "social justice." Now finding
themselves in positions of power, these social justice warriors have a deep-rooted belief in the fundamental unfairness of
America in general, and our judicial system in particular. They believe that crimes for which underprivileged groups,
namely blacks and Latinos, have higher rates of sentencing and incarceration, are the product of an at best a biased, and at
worst a racist system; a system which they are a part of and can find ways to affect. One example is when the
Obama/Holder DOJ released 6,000 people from federal prisons and reduced the sentences of as many as 46,000 others as a part
of their sentencing-reform efforts in 2015.
Nadler
must be stopped from weaponizing the House Judiciary Committee for political gain. New York Democratic
Congressman Jerry Nadler is the Chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. His conduct in that role should greatly
trouble every American who cares about the rule of law and fairness in our government. The committee's website posts a
lengthy bio of Chairman Nadler, portraying him above all else as a defender of civil liberties and the equal application of
the rule of law for all people. That picture might well have been accurate sometime in the past. I lived in his
District for a while and I was proud to have him as my Congressman precisely because of his reputation as a civil libertarian.
Chicago
Isn't The Only Town With A Problem In The Office Of Its Chief Prosecutor. [Scroll down] This is about the
office of St. Louis Circuit Attorney, Kim Gardner. You may recall that Gardner's office was the driving force
behind the prosecution (subsequently dropped) of former (now resigned) Missouri Governor Eric Greitens over his alleged
photographing of his mistress in a state of undress prior to taking office. Even at the time, Gardner's actions were
questioned and criticized. Since then, a grand jury probe has been opened into Gardner's handling of that matter and,
in particular, her hiring of ex-FBI agent William Tisaby as an investigator and his purported perjury in that matter.
And it's not been a good look for Gardner.
You're
A Sucker For Not Believing That The System Is Rigged. America has changed. There used to be one standard,
one set of laws, one set of rules. Now, there are two. The one set of rules for normal people is designed to jam
us up, to keep us down, to ensure that the power of the powerful never gets challenged. And the one set of rules for
the elite can be summed up like this: There are no rules.
Will Trump's DOJ Do
Anything About The Obama-Era Hacking Of Sharyl Attkisson? A federal court ruled 2-1 last week against allowing
Sharyl Attkisson to revive her suit over the Obama administration's alleged efforts to hack her personal devices. The
ruling spells doom for Americans victimized by government hackers in the future. The ruling from the Fourth Circuit
Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court's dismissal of her case against President's Obama Attorney General Eric Holder, "six
unknown agents" and others. Forensic investigators working for Attkisson — a former reporter for CBS —
found that proprietary government software was used to hack her home and business computers, but the court denied her any right
to pursue further evidence.
House
Democrats Are Relentlessly Harassing the President with Abusive Investigations. [Scroll down] In October
of 2018, Koppel got under the skin of CNN's Brian Stelter when he said that the network's ratings would be in the toilet if
it weren't for Donald Trump, despite the anti-Trump bias that oozes from the television set. It's all part of a rather
funny dynamic. The media hates Trump, but they get rating boosts when they broadcast his rallies, which in turn could
help him win re-election in 2020.
Wisconsin
Democratic Judge Says Duly Elected Republicans Can't Pass Laws. Recently, Democrats have come out in favor of
abolishing the Electoral College, packing the Supreme Court (gotta get that social justice agenda passed somehow), and
allowing non-citizens to vote. It's almost like they don't like living in the United States very much, although you'd
hurt their feelings if you gently suggest that if they don't like where they're living, they should depart for friendlier
climes. Now a judge in Wisconsin has issued an injunction against laws legally passed by the legislature by legally
elected representatives of the people. How did he do that? By declaring that the legally passed laws by the
legally elected representatives of the people weren't "legal" at all.
What happens
after no one goes to jail? Many of us have learned from past experience how to see. For example, we soon
realized there was no serious inquiry into Benghazi. Same for the Clinton Foundation, as well as for all the nefarious
deeds related to the nation's premier power couple. We shrug — it is what it is — what can we do
about it? The FISA Court, created in the wake of 911, has become the means to conduct secret, unsubstantiated,
investigations against political adversaries. Hi ho. NSA vacuuming up of a kazillion phone calls is, we're told,
for our protection and well-being. Sure it is. Unmasking of persons, led by the Obama administration's U.S.
Ambassador to the U.N. and the Queen of Unmasking, Samantha Powers, was, well, it must have been justified, right? Part
of keeping us safe.
The joy
of Left Privilege. Karl Marx was right: When you run the schools and the organs of propaganda you can do
anything. [...] Here's only a partial list of Left-Privileged demagogues in today's America: [#1] Without
left privilege Hilllary would be in jail. [#2] Sandy O is a complete creation of Left Privilege.
Every ignorant word she utters is treated as Holy Scripture... because of Left Privilege. [#3] Obama and
Michelle may be thinking of another eight years in the White House, because nobody can go after their misfeasance and
malfeasance in office... since they've got L.P. [#4] LP insists that the Robert Mueller investigation,
which has wasted years of time and millions of taxpayer dollars to no useful result, is a "national treasure" that must be
protected at all costs. [#5] LP also protects and funds Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Bruce and Nellie Ohr,
James Comey, and Andrew McCabe, who ought to be doing hard time instead.
The
long, odd history of Pasco County politicians behaving badly. Port Richey's mayor, Dale Massad, was arrested
last month by a SWAT team after deputies say he shot at them as they entered his home to take him into custody on charges of
practicing medicine without a license. Then his replacement, acting mayor Terrence Rowe, was arrested after authorities
said he conspired with Massad to intimidate a Port Richey police officer. They hatched the plan, officials said, while
talking over a jail phone that is recorded — and that inmates are informed is recorded. Both have been
suspended by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Report: Clintons' DOJ
Deal With FBI Exposed. While the Establishment Media attempts to distract with story after story of a college
admissions scandal, or a shooting tragedy across the globe, the real news breaking in the U.S. this week involves some
serious Deep State shenanigans whereby ruling class members like the Clintons and Obamas are allowed to do what they want
when they want without fear of repercussions.
18 Real Attacks
on the 'Rule of Law'. [#7] The Michael Flynn set-up: Flynn is a retired United States Army lieutenant
general who served for 33 years until his retirement in 2014. In January 2017, two FBI agents surprised Flynn with an
interview about a legal and routine conversation he had with the Russian ambassador in his capacity as an incoming
administration official. On December 1, 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to what his interrogators considered unintentional
misremembering of the facts. Flynn's interrogators did not actually think he was lying on purpose. News reports
speculated that the special counsel threatened to prosecute Flynn's son and Flynn was otherwise financially ruined by the
prosecution, leaving him little choice but to admit to "lying" about not remembering details of a conversation.
A Failed State. The
United States of America takes the Academy Award for officially becoming a Failed State. We must admit that Venezuela
gave the USA a run for its money; and speaking of money, we recently reached the failure-milestone of $22 trillion dollars
in debt. But, the coup de grâce came when former FBI Agent Andrew McCabe went on National television telling the
world that he and a small group of co-conspirators had attempted a coup to remove the President of the United States thereby
committing the act of treason. And, the very fact that he and his known collaborators were not immediately arrested and
charged, has put the USA in hands down first place for their failure of a state and have made a complete mockery of our
founding documents and the rule of law.
To
get Trump, FBI and Justice Department officials trampled the Constitution. Justice Department and FBI officials
spied on U.S. citizens with false warrants, gave a pass to one presidential campaign with a predetermined investigation,
investigated another political campaign on the basis of no verified evidence, and illegally leaked information on
investigations. They discussed wiretapping and using the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to remove President Trump,
and appointed a special counsel as a retaliatory move for Comey's firing. It is now crystal clear that the highest
echelons of the Justice Department and FBI had morphed from the world's most professional law enforcement organization into a
Third World rump group. They had the hubris to believe that they — not the American people or their duly
elected representatives — should decide who governs and how.
Alan
Dershowitz: Ousting Trump via 25th Amendment is 'clearly an attempt at a coup d'etat'. Harvard Law
professor Alan Dershowitz on Thursday said the Department of Justice's discussions to employ the 25th Amendment to oust
President Trump — if true — amounted to an attempted coup. Dershowitz appeared on Fox News'
"Tucker Carlson Tonight," to give his take on former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe's descriptions of Justice Department
meetings where he said officials discussed ousting the president. "If [McCabe's comments are] true, it is clearly an
attempt at a coup d'état," Dershowitz said. Evoking the 25th Amendment, Dershowitz added, would be a fundamental
misuse of its original purpose. He said it was originally "about Woodrow Wilson having a stroke. It's about a
president being shot and not being able to perform his office."
Congratulations,
new AG Barr — now get to work investigating and prosecuting the coup plotters. William Barr had no
obvious reason to want to become the nation's chief law enforcement officer — again. He already has that
office on his résumé and no doubt has been making millions every year as a high-powered partner at one of the
nation's highest-powered law firms, Kirkland & Ellis, in the lucrative specialty of advising big corporations on law
enforcement and regulatory issues. [...] If he succeeds in getting to the bottom of what looks like the biggest political
scandal in the nation's history, he will enter the history books as a great hero of the Republic, the man who uncovered and
prosecuted the villains who sought to overturn a presidential election in what is could be termed a coup, perhaps
prosecutable under the sedition statute.
I'm
Suing the Government. It Has a Problem With That. A federal appeals court recently heard oral arguments
in my lawsuit against former Attorney General Eric Holder, unnamed "John Doe" federal agents at the FBI and Justice
Department, and others. At issue are the intrusions into my computers while I worked as an investigative reporter for
CBS News, revealed by multiple forensic investigations showing use of proprietary government surveillance programs. It
was clear early on that the Justice Department was not interested in investigating or prosecuting its own. So I began
the search to find the facts about the invasion into my computers and life. That morphed into a lawsuit for damages,
because that's what the law sets out as the legal remedy.
Another
Inspector General Investigation Outlines FBI Corruption — Another DOJ "Declined Prosecution". The
Office of Inspector General (OIG) completes another investigation of an FBI Supervisory Special Agent finding unlawful and
unethical conduct. Unfortunately, despite the findings, the DOJ again declines prosecution. Worth noting:
Robert Mueller and Andrew Weissmann prosecuted Michael Cohen for fraudulent mortgage documents; the exact same activity the
DOJ has declined prosecution for against this FBI Supervisory Special Agent: Two-tiered justice. If it was the
intention of FBI Director Christopher Wray and/or AAG Matt Whitaker to eliminate corrupt behavior within the leadership ranks
of the DOJ/FBI; and if it was their intention to rebuild public confidence, this would not be the approach.
The
Corrupt DoJ vs. the People. This used to be the land of the free. Thanks to the politicized
justice system that was set in motion more than 20 years ago and reinforced during eight fateful years of the Obama
administration, the quaint notion that we benefit from due process has evaporated, along with Cinderella's ball gown and
fancy coach. A former federal prosecutor by the name of Sidney Powell has blown the whistle. [...] Powell, author of
Licensed to Lie: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice, described a system consisting of out-of-control
prosecutors who will do anything to get a conviction.
The
Potomac two-step: Will no one stand up to the corruption in the FBI, DOJ, and CIA? For nearly ten years
now, Americans who have been paying attention have known that our government has become corrupt, that its premier institutions
were weaponized by the Obama administration to the point that we have become something of a police state or banana republic.
This is not to say there was no corruption previous to Obama. As Sidney Powell addresses in her book License to Lie,
the current special counsel, Robert Mueller, and his amoral, ruthless right-hand man, Andrew Weismann, had already been practicing
their prosecutions of personal destruction for decades. In the 1980s, Mueller sent four men to prison who he knew were
innocent. He did it to protect a confidential informant. Two of them died in prison. The lawsuits filed cost
taxpayers $100M. That trial was connected to the murderous mafia hit man Whitey Bulger, who was finally caught after
sixteen years. He died in prison in 2018. Was he murdered to protect Mueller?
Roger
Stone's Arrest: What's Scandalous, and What Isn't. [Scroll down] Now, for what is truly scandalous
about Roger Stone's arrest: the manner in which it was carried out. The arrest was preserved on video because
someone — presumably either the FBI or Mueller's team — tipped off CNN, and CNN had cameras stationed
in front of Stone's residence at 5:00 in the morning. The video shows a dozen heavily armed FBI agents carrying out
what can fairly be described as a paramilitary operation against Stone's home. Why? Was there some reason to
think Stone was so dangerous that it required a pre-dawn raid by a dozen agents with AR-15s to take him into custody?
No such claim has been made, nor would it be plausible. The show that Mueller and the FBI put on for the cameras of
their political ally, CNN, was a disgrace.
The FBI Drops
In. Federal Law enforcement appears to be adopting methods more suitable for the KGB or Stasi. CNN's
exclusive news coverage of Roger Stone's arrest was a big mistake. It reminded sentient people of the Ruby Ridge, Waco,
and Elian Gonzalez raids. [...] Stone should consider himself very fortunate. Many predawn raids do not end well.
Ruby Ridge resulted in the death of Vicki Weaver, who was shot in the head by sharpshooter Lon Horiuchi while she was holding
her 10-month-old daughter, and the 14-year-old Sammy Weaver. In an effort to "save the children," the Waco standoff
rvesulted in twenty-one children under the age of 16 being burned alive. Elian Gonzalez was not shot or burned. He
vwas simply deported back to Cuba. Of course, those were the days when people were not so concerned about
children. All these incidents illustrate that the Deep State is still in charge. It appears that our elected
President is not in control. He keeps appointing Deep State apparatchiks like Wray and Barr. The real criminals
will never go to jail.
It's
time to blow up the bureaucracy that's killing America. For decades now, Americans have slogged through a
rising tide of idiocies. Getting a permit to do something useful, say, open a restaurant or fix a bridge, can take
years. Small businesses get nicked for noncompliance of rules they didn't know. Teachers are told not to put an
arm around a crying child. Doctors and nurses spend up to half the day filling out forms no one reads. Employers
no longer give job references. And, in the land of the First Amendment, political incorrectness can get you fired.
We'd all be better off without these daily frustrations. So why can't we use our common sense and start fixing things?
Where's
the Investigation into Senator Feinstein's Chinese Spy? Let's look at a case study in Justice Department and
news media bias: the treatment of President Trump compared with the treatment of Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein.
The media's glee over news that a group of anti-Trump bureaucrats took it upon themselves to investigate President Trump as a
traitor when he fired their friend Jim Comey in May 2017 has only served to clarify the establishment and media hostility
toward the President. With no evidence — save some absurd and unsubstantiated opposition research paid
for by the Clinton campaign and the Democrats — Obama-era FBI officials decided to covertly investigate the
newly-elected president for treason. This inquisition was apparently in addition to the counterintelligence
investigation over supposed (and undefined) collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia.
35
Times the FBI "Deviated from Standard Practice" or Committed Crimes in Effort to Exonerate Hilary and Indict Trump.
The FBI leadership under the Obama Administration took many actions that deviated from standard practice [i.e. were corrupt and
criminal] in their efforts to exonerate Hillary from her crimes and then spy and frame candidate and then President Trump.
Today current members of the FBI are embarrassed to even turn on their TV's as a result. Time magazine of all places reported
recently about the many efforts the FBI took related to Hillary exoneration and then the Trump framing. These corrupt and
criminal actions have taken a desperate toll on the current members of the FBI[.]
The
FBI Targeting the President is a Coup. Now we have a black and white admission that the FBI went after President
Trump for a nonsensical conspiracy theory put out by the Clinton campaign after he fired Comey. This is a huge problem.
Forget the whole D and R thing for a moment. Start thinking about Rome instead and the Praetorian Guard.
We have elected officials for a reason. They're not immune to criminal charges. But there's a huge difference between
a Federal law enforcement agency investigating a crime. And a Federal law enforcement agency deciding to launch an
investigation of the President of the United States specifically after he fired their boss. Is the entire FBI tainted?
Not in this regard. The FBI suffered from politicized leadership. It still does. But it also suffers from
political entanglements and a good deal of institutional arrogance.
When
Did It Become the FBI's Job to Act as a Check and Balance to the President? The proximate cause of the FBI investigation, if the [New York]
Times reporting is correct, wasn't any new information about Russia's activity. It was Trump acting entirely within his powers to fire his FBI
director. This might be the first time that a FBI counterintelligence investigation was triggered by a lawful domestic action. This is
crazy. Perhaps you believe that Trump's firing of Comey was ill-intentioned and abusive. That's a reasonable view, but it is Congress's job
to take this up, not the job of a subordinate law-enforcement agency within the executive branch.
Rosenstein,
DOJ exploring ways to more easily spy on journalists. For months now, the Department of Justice (DOJ) quietly
has been working on a revision to its guidelines governing how, when and why prosecutors can obtain the records of journalists,
particularly in leak cases. The work has been supervised by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's office, especially since
former Attorney General Jeff Sessions departed, but is not wrapped up. The effort has the potential to touch off a First
Amendment debate with a press corps that already has high degrees of distrust of and disfunction with the Trump administration.
The FBI is the
security threat. The Washington Post ran a column, "The FBI can't neutralize a security threat if the president
is the threat." The President of the United States is never a threat to national security. He is national
security. We elect him commander in chief. The FBI works at his command. Jimmy the Geek Comey and his crew
committed mutiny when they began an investigation into Our President. Their actions are treasonous and in violation of
their oaths to defend the Constitution.
On
What Grounds Can the FBI Investigate the President as a Counterintelligence Threat? The New York Times reported
on Jan. 11 that the FBI "began investigating whether President Trump had been working on behalf of Russia against American
interests" soon after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey in May 2017. In other words, the FBI opened a counterintelligence
investigation on the president. The Times reports that my friend and former colleague, former FBI General Counsel James
Baker, said during testimony to House investigators in October 2018 that "Not only would [firing Comey] be an issue of
obstructing an investigation, but the obstruction itself would hurt our ability to figure out what the Russians had done, and
that is what would be the threat to national security." [...] If the story is accurate, then what the FBI did was
unprecedented and possibly — I emphasize possibly, since many relevant facts are not included in the Times
reporting — an overstep, or at least imprudent. The reason the FBI step might have been imprudent is that it
was premised on an inversion of the normal assumptions of Article II of the Constitution.
Why
Did The FBI Launch An Unapproved Investigation Of President Trump? There was a rather disturbing story in
Friday's New York Times. The headline is F.B.I. Opened Inquiry Into Whether Trump Was Secretly Working on Behalf of
Russia. The story is not disturbing for the reason the New York Times is flogging it, it is disturbing because it
illustrates the extent to which senior law enforcement officials can use their power to attack political figures they
perceive to be their enemies.
Sharyl
Attkisson Previews Her Case Against Eric Holder's DOJ. Former CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson is preparing
for her oral arguments in her case against the Department of Justice and the FBI. Attkisson claims her computer was
compromised by DOJ agents in late 2012 while she was reporting on the Benghazi attacks, Fast and Furious and Obamacare.
She first sued the Obama administration over the unwanted surveillance in January 2015. She gave her "layperson's
explanation" of the upcoming case in a recent video, first by identifying her team's targets. Attkisson noted they are
suing specific government officials like former Attorney General Eric Holder. The government, she explained, is arguing
they enjoy "broad immunity" for their supervisory actions while in office. Her team will push back on that notion and
argue that Holder "would have had to do more than just supervise these intrusions into my computer based on forensics" and
therefore "immunity does not apply in this case."
Hiding
Evidence: The Continuing Cover-Up. Look at the big picture. Those in power regularly hide evidence
of their crimes and get away with it. From Lois Lerner to Hillary Clinton to Strzok and Page, the dreaded "glitch" eats
the most important evidence. From "Fast and Furious" to Benghazi to Comey's fake investigation of Hillary to
Rosenstein's stonewalling to Mueller's "insurance policy" cover-up, hiding the facts is the primary goal. Joseph Stalin
is quoted as saying, "The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything."
It is also true that the actual evidence decides nothing. The people who control the evidence decide everything.
Democrats get away with a much worse
crime than Watergate. Since Watergate, the Washington wisdom has always held that it's not the crime, it's the
coverup that sinks a politician. But that's only the case when the coverup fails. But what if the coverup
succeeds? It's horribly simple. The crimes are never uncovered and the perpetrators are never brought to justice
no matter how serious their crimes may be. That is precisely what has happened because of the FBI and Justice
Department's coverup of their abuses of power and illegal actions during the 2016 election. In this case, the FBI and
the Justice Department have succeeded in the most significant coverup in American political history. The abuses of
power and crimes they have succeeded in covering up are not only against the law: they are crimes against our system of law
and government. They were perpetrated by employees of the government, under color of law, with the intention of
affecting the outcome of an election.
Mueller
Won't Let Defendants See the Evidence in Russian Troll Case. Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian
nationals and firms for interference in the 2016 election after they placed ads and established profiles on social media.
Mueller was taken by surprise when one of those firms, Concord Management and Consulting, hired U.S. lawyers to fight it in
court. The thinnest of evidence makes up Mueller's case. The judge issued a protective order for the 'sensitive'
documents. Only lawyers can see these documents. Lawyers for the defendants asked the court to allow them to
share protective order documents with their client so they can provide a proper defense.
What's Next in FBI Oversight. Tax and criminal-justice
reform and judicial appointments are all hugely important. But House and Senate investigators get pride of place for
unraveling one of the greatest dirty tricks of our political times, in which a Democratic administration, party and
presidential campaign either co-opted or fooled the FBI into investigating the Republican campaign. Lawmakers got to
the bottom of this despite partisan attacks and institutional obstruction. Congress has taken that probe about as far
as was ever going to be possible. The next steps are up to the White House.
Comey's
anti-Trump and pro-Hillary bias in 2016 clear from new developments — Why was the Russia probe begun?
[I]n the massive news coverage of all sorts of unproven allegations against President Trump — many arising out of the
investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller of alleged cooperation between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia —
the FBI's pursuit of political targets has received far too little notice. After Watergate and the Hoover's 48-year reign at
the FBI, leaders of law enforcement agencies should have learned some important lessons: Don't be used as the servants of
people in power. Stay out of politics. And don't investigate political campaigns, because it's not your job to
influence the outcome of elections. Dictatorships politicize their law enforcement agencies. In America, we want the
FBI and police to be nonpartisan, and we expect them to give equal treatment to people of all political parties and persuasions.
New
York AG Announces Plans to Weaponize Office to Target Political Opposition. Did you get your yellow vest
yet? The recently elected New York Attorney General, Letitia James, makes a public declaration that she intends to
fully weaponize her office to target the Trump family. On the bright side, democrats can no longer claim their
preferred approach of weaponizing their offices for direct targeting of their political opposition as a "right-wing
conspiracy theory"; they are specifically outlining their intent to do exactly that.
Jerome
Corsi Challenges Robert Mueller. Misconduct by the once-great Department of Justice is all too common.
The unethical prosecution of former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens stole a U.S. Senate election from the Republicans in
2008. That earned a tongue-lashing from Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in the U.S. District Court for the District of
Columbia on April 7, 2009. But left-wing embeds within the DoJ took the wrong lessons from the Stevens fiasco.
They took it as a dry run, practice for stealing the presidential election in 2016. What is the DoJ claiming now?
That Jerry Corsi and Roger Stone must have been the conduit for a Russian conspiracy because they "knew" — after it was
widely reported in the news media — that Wikileaks would release stolen documents that Wikileaks told the entire world
way in advance it was going to release.
Grassley
Questions Horowitz About FBI Raid on Whistleblower. Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley has always worked
earnestly to protect whistleblowers; it is a subject near and dear to his heart. Against the backdrop of an unexpected
raid on the home of an approved and protected whistleblower named Dennis Nathan Cain, Senator Grassley writes to Inspector
General Horowitz: [...]
Grassley
Questions Director Wray About FBI Raid on Clinton Foundation, Uranium One Whistleblower. Outgoing Senate
Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) questioned FBI Director Christopher Wray about the raid of the home of a Clinton
Foundation, Uranium One whistleblower in a letter this weekend. [...] When the agents showed up to Cain's home, he informed
them that he was a protected whistleblower under the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection and that Horowitz
officially recognized his status as a whistleblower. The FBI agents intimidated the whistleblower and rummaged through
his home — Grassley is right to question FBI Director Wray's potential involvement and knowledge of this raid that
appears to have violated the whistleblower's rights.
The super-secret
pay hike for state legislators. The state Legislature would really prefer that no one say anything about, or
even notice, the quiet drive to hike its members' pay until it's a done deal. [...] Created this year by one of those "three
men in a room" deals, the New York State Compensation Committee will announce its pay-hike recommendation early next
month — and it'll become law unless the Legislature rushes back to Albany for a special session to vote it down.
Sharyl
Attkisson, Veteran Journalist and Government-Fighter, Opens Up. Stonewalled is the title of
investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson's first book — and stonewalling is what the Department of Justice is doing
to her now. Determined to receive justice, she has a landmark lawsuit against the DOJ for electronically surveilling
her computers. Multiple forensics exams have revealed the government-related remote efforts to monitor her.
Government agents most likely did it because she had the "audacity" to dig into facts regarding wasteful green energy
spending, as well as the Fast and Furious and Benghazi scandals. Besides hitting a brick wall with those in the
government who want to see the lawsuit eliminated, Attkisson also has to battle the enormous cost in terms of time and money.
The
word 'Russia' eliminates all rational thought in journalists. After two long years of the most expensive and
wide-ranging independent counsel investigation in a generation, we should be close to nabbing those dastardly secret agents
from Russia who supposedly hacked our presidential election. Are we? No, we're not. Robert Mueller's
prosecutors are instead threatening elderly men with life in prison for petty crimes. Crimes that have nothing to do
with spying or Russia or anything else that threatens America. The whole thing is a grotesque joke. But you'd
never know that from watching cable television.
For
the crime of forgetting, Jerome Corsi is facing bankruptcy and imprisonment. Jerome Corsi is 72-years-old.
He has a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard. He has written two New York Times bestsellers about politics.
He is the kind of person who could, and probably should be happily retired by now. Instead, he's facing felony charges
from Robert Mueller. How did this happen?
The
Escalating Assault on Citizen Journalism. This past week, the progressive establishment attempted to silence
two more independents. In the first case, Twitter and Facebook conspired to deny the audacious 25-year-old journalist
Laura Loomer her rapidly growing audience. In the second, Special Counsel Robert Mueller lowered the boom on Jerome
Corsi, a 72-year-old Harvard Ph.D. An all too typical headline this week from ABC News — "Conspiracy theorist
becomes key figure as Mueller builds case" — delegitimizes Corsi even before the article begins. Corsi is
not a journalist; he is a "conspiracy theorist." The media are not opposed to conspiracy theorizing in general —
Michael Moore did win an Oscar — but rather to theorizing that has the potential to harm the progressive establishment.
WaPo:
Jerome Corsi in Negotiations With Mueller for Plea Deal. Jerome Corsi is famous for his research, analysis and
theories surrounding the life story of President Obama. In most mainstream media circles Corsi was labeled a
'conspiracy theorist'. Then again, some conspiracies are not theory; and seeing the Washington Post take lead against Corsi
only cements Mueller's deep state allies are feeding the info. As word spreads about Robert Mueller snaring Corsi inside
his investigative quicksand, don't be surprised to find people wondering if Corsi's work into the background of Obama isn't the
real motive behind snare deployment.
If
You Want The Government To Hand Over Documents, You Might Want To Retain A Lawyer. Fifty years after the
passage of the Freedom of Information Act, the letter of the law lives on but its spirit has been crushed. While it's
definitely preferable to having no opportunity to demand government agencies hand over requested documents, it's not the
significant improvement it was promised to be. As was noted here four years ago, the government has pretty much adopted
a presumption of opacity that necessitates the filing of lawsuits. This contradicts the law's intentions, as well as
proclamations made by President Obama, who declared his administration the "most transparent." This assertion fell flat
when government agencies engaged in FOIA business as usual and Obama did nothing to hold them accountable.
Falsehood
shames Clapper, Brennan and pledge to protect whistleblowers. In the summer of 2014, then-Director of National
Intelligence James Clapper sent a letter assuring Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) that enhanced
monitoring of Intelligence Community workers was designed to find leakers and insider threats, and was not intended to thwart
lawful whistleblowing. Specifically, America's top spy told the two senators that if any protected whistleblowing was
intercepted by the Obama administration's new monitoring, it wouldn't be used to tip off spy agency leaders. [...] It turns
out that entire pledge was false and disingenuous. And it took us four years and a new presidential administration to
get the truth. Just four months before Clapper penned that letter, the CIA intercepted one or more whistleblowers'
disclosures, legally submitted and intended to go to Congress through the Intelligence Community's official whistleblowing
office. And the intercepts were briefed to CIA leadership, contrary to Clapper's assurance.
Sessions
vows 'emergency' Supreme Court battles amid 'outrageous' discovery rulings by federal judges. Attorney General
Jeff Sessions on Monday lit into federal judges for what he called a dramatic uptick in "outrageous" decisions threatening to
interfere with the separation of powers by exposing internal White House deliberations. In a fiery speech to the
conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, Sessions warned that "once we go down this road in American government, there
is no turning back." [...] Sessions specifically singled out New York district court judge Jesse M. Furman, who ruled that
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross could be questioned in an ongoing lawsuit concerning the legality of the Trump administration's
decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.
The
Road to Waco. The case of Frank Fuster has been back in the news thanks in part to this magazine's efforts at
reminding the public of the injustice of his situation. [...] Fuster is certainly a criminal (he served time for homicide,
and there is no question as to his guilt in that matter), and he may even be a child molester, but it is almost certain that
he did not commit the crimes for which he was convicted, because it is almost certain that those crimes did not occur at all.
Law Enforcement for Rent. This paper details
an extensive and elaborate campaign using elective law enforcement offices, in coordination with major donors and activist
pressure groups, to attain a policy agenda that failed through the democratic process. The plan is revealed in emails
and other public records obtained during two and a half years of requests under state open records laws. Most are being
released now for the first time. Many were obtained only by court order in the face of a determined and coordinated
resistance that one deputy attorney general foresaw, expressing early concerns over "an affirmative obligation to always
litigate" requests looking into the effort. The paper details how donor-financed governance has expanded into dangerous
and likely unconstitutional territory: state attorney general (AG) offices. The plan traces back to 2012 when
activists agreed to seek "a single sympathetic attorney general" to assist their cause. AGs began subpoenaing private
parties' records in service of a campaign of litigation against opponents of their climate policy agenda.
Credibility
Is the Currency: How to Defeat Propaganda. The U.S. government has a number of messaging authorities
assigned, in part, with countering propaganda — from the communications offices of elected political leaders and
military public affairs officers to State Department public diplomacy and the routine statements put out by federal agencies
every day. The government does a lot of messaging aimed at setting the record straight. Though it does little to
align its messaging effectively across these agencies, and could do better, that is not the key problem. The problem is
trust. Americans don't trust the government to tell them the truth. The government has invited the people's
mistrust. False messages from politicians are a well-known feature of politics, whether they come from Twitter or from
the media and public policy "echo chambers" or they were set up by the previous administration.
Framing
Ted Stevens In 2008 Was The Deep State's Trial Run For Framing Trump. According to the government's theory of
the case, Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens underpaid for renovations on his cabin in a scheme to accept a non-cash bribe from a
foreman for his contractor named Rocky Williams. During the mock cross-examination, the prosecution became alarmed when
Williams was easily led into adopting the defense's theory of the case. Both the prosecution and the defense had
Williams under subpoena. This would not do. So the prosecution filed an affidavit before Judge Emmet Sullivan
claiming that the witness would be too sick to testify. Instead of campaigning for his re-election in Alaska, then,
Stevens defended himself in a rigged felony trial in Washington D.C., not knowing that the government had hid evidence and spirited
away an exculpatory witness. Stevens lost the trial in what some might consider the Deep State's trial run for 2016.
The
Rule of Law Is a Sick Joke. Sure, the rule of law is terrific in concept, and it would sure be nice to give it another whirl
here in America, but we aren't blind or stupid. We see what the "law" is and how it's applied — there's one law for the
elite (that's the one that never gets applied) and one for us Normals that's designed to keep us in line with our mouths shut.
Today, the "law" is a weapon wielded by the establishment to cement its grip on its power and position. That's why Democrats are
so eager to repeal Citizens United and pass all sorts of new laws restricting election campaigning. They know they will be able
to violate those laws with impunity while using them to jam up their conservative opponents.
FBI
Pushes Back On GOP Rep's Claim That FBI Uses Leaks To Get FISAs. The FBI is disputing a claim that an FBI
analyst told Congress that the bureau uses information leaked to the press to obtain surveillance warrants against American
citizens. On Monday [8/27/2018], North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows tweeted that Congress had "learned NEW information
suggesting our suspicions are true: FBI/DOJ have previously leaked info to the press, and then used those same press
stories as a separate source to justify FISA's. Unreal." A congressional source told The Daily News Foundation that
Meadows was referring to information provided during a congressional interview on Friday [8/24/2018] with Jonathan Moffa, an
FBI analyst who worked on the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
Just Another Word
for Nothing Left to Lose. The notion that people should be free to pursue their own lives, with only minimal
interference and subsidy from the government, is never on the table. The assumption, in the Legislature, among
policymakers and in local government, is that private actors would leave a path of death and destruction if the government
didn't try to manage everything. That the government itself always leaves destruction in its wake — not only within
its own bureaucracies but within the industries it controls — simply is more evidence that government needs even more power.
In This Corner: Against
Political Trials. A "political trial" is any trial in which the prosecution is unusually severe because the
defendant participates in the political process, or because the defendant has a friend, associate or family member who
participates in the political process. The extra severity may be that the person is prosecuted at all, or prosecuted
under an unusual or newly created theory. It may be that the defendant is pursued by especially aggressive
prosecutorial attack squads or is threatened with a far greater punishment than for the same crime without a political
link. In a political trial, the defendant's nexus to the greater political system leads to harsher justice than for an
average citizen who stays in the foxhole of private life and leaves control of politics and government to others.
No
Sympathy for Elected Devils. The congressman and his wife will have their day in court. Perhaps the jury won't
believe the charges or will accept some explanation from the defendants. But right now, the indictment seems like a sterling
example of why members of Congress need to be subjected to such relentless scrutiny and constant skepticism. Yes, it probably
feels unfair, but elected officials are given a pretty sweet deal — certainly a better arrangement than what most of their
constituents will ever know — and some of them just can't resist the urge to take even more.
Why
is the Lafayette library having Drag Queen Story Time? The reaction has been mixed after the Lafayette Public
Library announced plans for its first Drag Queen Story Time. Members of the Delta Lambda Phi social fraternity will
lead the event, scheduled for 2 p.m. Oct. 6 at the library's main branch. Library Director Teresa Elberson
said the fraternity approached the library about the program. After a lengthy discussion, library officials decided to move
forward. The event is expected to include fraternity members dressed in drag who will read to children and participate in
activities with them and their families.
De
Blasio lets security haul away [a] Post reporter for asking [a] question. Mayor de Blasio is a such a big
believer in the free press that he let two bodyguards physically remove a credentialed Post reporter who had the temerity to
ask him a question in public on Sunday [8/12/2018]. [...] Instead of answering or even declining to answer the question, the
mayor watched as two members of his NYPD security detail approached the reporter — who was wearing a police-issued
press pass around his neck — with one grabbing his shoulder and leading him away from the mayor.
The
Police Were Not Policed. In sum, many within the FBI, the CIA, the DOJ, the NSC, and the State Department may
have been involved in the greatest scandal in American electoral history, by directing agents, informants, and employees to
help one campaign to harm another — and then, even after the election, to work to undermine a sitting president.
In addition, these rogue agencies spent two years fighting congressional requests to release incriminating information.
And then, when they were forced against their will to cough up some documents, they redacted them so heavily that they're
almost undecipherable.
Nashville
Government Employees Tasked With Impounding Dockless E-Scooters Caught Riding Them Instead. Government workers
tasked with taking prohibited e-scooters off Nashville's streets have been caught riding them instead. Nashville's NBC
affiliate WSMV aired surveillance footage yesterday of employees from the city and county's shared Metro Public Works
department having a grand old time riding confiscated e-scooters in a Metro-owned parking lot while on duty. Now, it's
certainly hard to fault anyone for enjoying themselves on these e-scooters, which are owned by scooter company Bird.
They're a breeze to ride. But Metro employees doing so is a bit awkward given the agency's aggressive crackdown on
these same vehicles.
City Council
President Wants Tougher Enforcement of Airbnb. Oh, He's Also President of the State's Hotel Lobby. For
several years, lobbyists for the hotel industry have been engaged in efforts to get local and state governments to make life
more difficult for short-term rental and home-sharing platforms like Airbnb and VRBO. But what happens when the lobbyists
literally are the government? We soon might get to find out, thanks to Kenny Glavan. He's the city council
president in Biloxi, Mississippi, and he recently pushed the city to step up enforcement of tax and licensing requirements
for short-term rentals. But Glavan also happens to be the president of the Mississippi Hotel and Lodging Association,
the state arm of a national organization that's been on the forefront of legal and regulatory battles with Airbnb in New York
City, Nashville, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere.
Here
Are 410 Movies Made Under The Direct Influence And Supervision Of The Pentagon. A year ago we featured a
detailed report by authors Tom Secker and Matthew Alford exposing just how vast the Pentagon and CIA programs for partnering
with Hollywood actually are, based on some 4,000 new pages of formerly classified archived documents obtained through the
Freedom of Information Act. The report noted at the time that "These documents for the first time demonstrate that the
US government has worked behind the scenes on over 800 major movies and more than 1,000 TV titles."
Dinesh
D'Souza's FBI File Was 'Red-Flagged' as "Right-Wing Conservative'. Dinesh D'Souza said that Rep Devin Nunes
told him what is in his FBI file and it should concern every American. D'Souza said on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal"
that DeSantis called him after the lawmaker received a redacted version of the FBI file through a congressional
inquiry. "Finally they gave the congressional committee the redacted file, and a congressman who saw that file called
me," D'Souza said. "And he goes, 'No. 1, your case is a $20,000 violation, but the FBI immediately assigned $100,000 to
investigate your case.' He said that's extremely abnormal." DeSantis had looked into the file because he was concerned the
prosecution of D'Souza was politically motivated.
The Police State Abolishes the
Trial. Several years ago, the police entered the office of a young professor at a reputable university and
arrested him for an online crime. They took the professor away, booked him, and then offered him a deal: admit guilt
and get off easy. The professor said to the few people to whom he was permitted to speak that this was crazy because he
was innocent. His lawyer warned him: fight this and you could get life; admit guilt and you will get a suspended
sentence. He took the deal. It was a trick. Now he languishes in jail, his life wrecked as far into the
future as he can see. This doesn't happen in America, does it? Yes, it does. Not only that, it is
increasingly the norm.
SCOTUS Panic
Shows Gov't Has Too Much Power. Democrats loved it when President Barack "I've got a pen and I've got a phone"
Obama utilized executive orders to achieve policy objectives they wanted, like Obama's DACA order on immigration. But
faced with President Trump's ability to exercise that same power (even if just to undo Obama's orders), they scream
"Fascism!" The problem isn't Obama or Trump per se; it is an executive branch that increasingly exceeds the
constitutional limits of its power, and usurps that of Congress.
Rudy
Giuliani: Mueller investigation the 'most corrupt investigation I have ever seen'. Rudy Giuliani, one of
President Trump's lawyers, lambasted special counsel Robert Mueller's probe, calling it the "most corrupt investigation" he's
ever seen. "This is the most corrupt investigation I have ever seen that the Justice Department is allowing to go
forward," Giuliani told ABC News on Sunday. "I've never seen an investigation with texts from FBI agents, now seven of
them, that have such extraordinary bias." The former New York City mayor was referencing messages exchanged by FBI
employees that were hostile to Trump. The messages were revealed in a report from the Justice Department's inspector
general last month.
The Gangster State. Consider what we
are watching with our government. News brings word that the US Attorney is dropping charges against the terrorists, who
went on a rampage during the inauguration last year. They announced this in a holiday week, so it would get the least
amount of news coverage. Now, they certainly could have looked into who financed the riot, who helped organize it and
then went after the shot callers, but they never bothered to do that. Instead, they sat on it until people forgot about
it and then dropped the case. Now, we have mountains of laws for dealing with self-defined criminal groups. The
Feds could go after a Lacy MacAuley, who details her activities on-line, in order to figure out who pays her rent. Then
they could go after that person or group. This is basic police work. At the very minimum, the people financing
these terrorists would know they have some exposure, but that never happens. You see, everyone knows who finances
Antifa and other terrorists operations and they have friends in high places.
De
Blasio used a $3M counterterrorism plane to zip home from vacation. The NYPD used a $3 million counterterrorism
plane to shuttle Mayor Bill de Blasio back and forth from his Canada vacation to the Big Apple for an event Thursday [7/5/2018], The
[New York] Post has learned. Hizzoner, who is in Quebec on a weeklong respite, briefly flew back to the Bronx for a memorial
for slain Detective Miosotis Familia. "NYPD is transporting him in their plane," de Blasio spokesman Eric Phillips told The
Post. "Their plane" is a Cessna 208 Caravan that cost roughly $3 million and was picked up by the department in
2017, sources said.
FBI
may have modified witness reports, misled DOJ watchdog with 'false information,' GOP Rep says. The FBI may have
"edited and changed" key witness reports in the Hillary Clinton and Russia investigations, a top House Republican charged in
a hearing into FBI and Justice Department misconduct Tuesday [6/26/2018]. Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Mark Meadows,
R-N.C, also raised the possibility that the FBI misled the DOJ watchdog in an attempt to hide the identities of FBI employees
who were caught sending anti-Trump messages.
Imprisoned by the Deep
State. Paul Manafort does not appear to be a nice man. But he deserves equal treatment under the
law. If certain members of The Deep State are not being jailed before their crimes are assessed, then he should at
least be free on bond.
McCain
Flunky Weaponized the IRS, Is Now In Control of All Internal Probes. The revelation two nights ago that John
McCain's Staff Director urged the IRS and Lois Lerner to target the tea party until its "financially ruinous" is bad
enough. However, it gets worse. It must be noted that he is now in charge of all internal investigations in the
government and he is in control of whistleblowers. In his past positions, he was in investigative control during Fast &
Furious, Benghazi, and other probes. The man weaponized the IRS. His goal was to target conservatives through the
IRS. Why is he in one of the most powerful positions in government, internally investigating a corrupt DoJ/FBI when he
appears corrupt himself?
How
Immigration Officials Cooked the Books and Fooled Congress for Years. A recent Justice Department report on
U.S. immigration courts provides a rare glimpse into the difficulties faced by the Trump administration as it repairs the
damages inflicted on these tribunals over the last 20 years. But give credit to the courts' new executive, James
McHenry. Early on, he identified the need for transparency and has made accurate disclosure of court business one of
his agency's highest priorities. Candor, if not reform, demands no less. It's a good start for an executive
whose predecessors often avoided — and sometimes denied — the truth about the courts' troubling
dynamics. Yet the courts limped along, their annual reports masking a systemic dysfunction never shared with
Congress. While transparency won't cure the dysfunction, it should identify obvious areas for reform — among
them failures to appear in court.
The
IG Report: They're Guilty, but It's Okay. First we were told that Comey was a straight shooter whom we
could trust. Then we were told the same about Mueller, Rosenstein, and now the IG. Yet in every case we've discovered
that they are biased political actors who put the interests of the Deep State and the Democratic Party ahead of their sworn
duty to uphold the law. It's time for all conservatives to acknowledge that there are few if any honest people at the
top levels of the FBI or the DoJ.
Sex,
lies and betrayal at the FBI. If Jeff Sessions and Christopher Wray want to clean house at the FBI, they'll be
well advised to pack a good lunch. Cleaning this house will be an all-day job. The agency under James B. Comey
has been more corrupt than we thought. The long-awaited findings of the inspector general at the Justice Department
were finally released Thursday, and it reveals clearly that officials high up in the food chain were out to protect Hillary
Clinton by any means necessary.
Pardoned
Sailor Files Lawsuit Against Obama, Comey for Unequal Prosecution of Clinton Email Case. Former Navy seaman
Kristian Saucier, who was sentenced to one year in federal prison for taking pictures aboard a nuclear submarine in 2009, is
suing former President Barack Obama and former FBI Director James Comey for unequal protection under the law. Saucier
alleges he was unfairly punished while former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was left to walk for her unauthorized use of
a private email server, the Washington Times reports. President Donald Trump pardoned Saucier in March this year.
Saucier's attorney says the lawsuit now plans to highlight the political nature of his client's prosecution compared to
Clinton's. In 2016, when Saucier's case was being litigated, prosecutors rejected any comparison to the Clinton case.
The
Papadopoulos Case Needs a Closer Look. Congress should be taking a very hard look at the prosecution of George
Papadopoulos. To these eyes, the harder one looks, the more the Papadopoulos case appears to be much ado about
nothing. That is no small thing: The "much ado" here is a purported Trump-Russia conspiracy to subvert a
presidential election. There has always been something fishy about the charge filed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller
against Papadopoulos, who was a green-as-grass 28-year-old when he made the big primary-season move from Ben Carson-campaign
novice to Trump-campaign novice.
On the other hand...
Carter
Page is the Biggest Victim in the Trump-Russia Hoax. It's hard to get a read on Carter Page. Since the
Trump campaign volunteer became a central figure in the Obama administration's plot to sabotage Donald Trump's candidacy and
undermine — if not destroy — his presidency, Page has been the target of numerous death threats.
He is mocked by opinion writers and the public. (Just check out the replies to any tweet he posts.) While Trump
antagonist Stormy Daniels earns sympathetic coverage and victim status in the pages of major newspapers and even some
conservative publications, Page's plight is largely ignored.
Carter Page: The FBI
ruined my life. FBI surveillance of former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page cost him business, income and
even his girlfriend. Page tells The Post that during the media barrage he faced in late 2016, he visited his girlfriend
at her London flat, where she was "freaking out with the fake news about me." "Talking with her later in the evening
after dinner, she told me that she didn't want me staying there anymore, and that our relationship was over. "So late
that night," Page continued, "I booked a last-minute hotel reservation as part of this early chapter of the redefinition of
my life."
Trump
says Mueller probe has 'destroyed' people's lives. President Trump said "young and beautiful lives" have been
destroyed by special counsel Robert Mueller's "Witch Hunt" investigation into Russian interference during the election and
any collusion on the part of Trump campaign staffers. "Who's going to give back the young and beautiful lives (and
others) that have been devastated and destroyed by the phony Russia Collusion Witch Hunt?," Trump said in a tweet on Sunday.
"They journeyed down to Washington, D.C., with stars in their eyes and wanting to help our nation ... They went back home
in tatters!"
'An
Abuse of Power': Rep. Biggs Says Mueller Is Investigating a Person, Not a Crime. Rep. Andy Biggs
(R-Ariz.) is one of several Republican lawmakers calling for a second special counsel to probe alleged abuses by the FBI and
Justice Department. On "Happening Now" on Wednesday, Biggs said the only way to get to the bottom of apparent
"improprieties" in the Russia and Hillary Clinton email probes is to investigate the investigators. "We can't rely on
them to investigate themselves. So we need to get a special counsel outside of them to get in there and investigate,"
Biggs explained.
Levin:
Mueller's appointment was unconstitutional. Kicking off the week on the radio Monday, LevinTV host Mark Levin
raised a crucial point about the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller that no one is currently discussing —
it was unconstitutional. "The appointment of Robert Mueller violates the United States Constitution," Levin said.
"And every subpoena, indictment, and plea agreement should be null and void."
Can
We Hope To Keep Our Republic When One Of The Parties Supports Tyranny? Think about this — a
significant portion of our country, including a majority of its elite, thinks that it's A-OK for a Democrat administration to
spy on a Republican candidate. Think hard about that. And think about whether or not we can ever put the pieces
of our shattered republic back together again if we can't even agree that using government power against our political
enemies is a bad thing. But the terrifying truth is that liberals and their Never Trump enablers actually think this
kind of tyranny is a good thing. You see, they think Normal Americans are so transcendently awful (and, even more
importantly, that the elite's power so precious) that all is fair in order to stifle their opponents' collective voice.
Junk
science locks up innocent people. The TV show "Cold Case Files" covered the trial of Alfred Swinton. He
was convicted of murder because a bite-mark expert said his teeth matched a bite on the victim. "A perfect match!" said
Dr. Gus Karazulas, the "forensic odontologist" whose testimony clinched the conviction. Karazulas sounded impartial
and objective. "A forensic scientist is not on the side of the prosecutor or defense," he said on "Cold Case Files."
"We look at the evidence." But Swinton was innocent. Lawyer Chris Fabricant helped get him released from jail by
doing a DNA test, a much more reliable, less subjective form of science. Fabricant scoffs at bite-mark testimony:
"The doctor was just wrong. It's an unreliable technique."
Government
corruption and the destruction of a great man. It is easy to corrupt the greedy man. It is another to
corrupt a heroic man. Yet within each of us lurks a dark corner that, unless we implore God to shine His light into it,
can corrupt us. If anyone doubts this, consider the tragic story of Randall "Duke" Cunningham.
We
Need to Know What Brennan, Clapper, Comey, Rice, Power and the Rest of Them Did. The Mueller investigation has,
oddly enough, revealed that the greatest perpetrator against the American people in the 2016 election was the federal
government. The greatest perpetrator against the American people was the federal government, was the leadership in the
FBI, the CIA, the national intelligence director, etc. We cannot allow this to happen again. We saw our federal
government used by the prior administration, by the head of the CIA, by the head of the FBI, by the head of national
intelligence and many, many others used to try and destroy the candidate of the opposition party. These Obama
intelligence officials tried to destroy Donald Trump and the electoral process. An administration interfering in
elections is something we've never seen anything before in American history.
Spies Like Obama?
With the flood of new evidence from recent days, it is becoming increasingly difficult to deny that President
Obama — undeniably the most pro-Russian president in American history — and his men abused the powers
of their offices not only to spy on then-candidate Donald Trump but also to undermine and lay the foundation for the
overthrow of Trump's administration.
Former Trump
Campaign Advisor Claims The FBI Detained Him And Took His Phone During Interrogation. A former Trump campaign
adviser told Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tuesday the FBI detained him and took his phone when the agency questioned him earlier
this year. Theodore Malloch, a former Trump campaign advisor, was stopped at Logan Airport in Boston, "taken into a
room and ask questions by the FBI," and had his "phone under a warrant seized," with no lawyer present. Malloch said
the FBI had him wait for about 20 minutes, divided him from his wife and searched his belongings and "took me to a
separate building to introduce me to two different FBI agents who asked me a series of questions."
10
Key Takeaways From The New York Times' Error-Ridden Defense Of FBI Spying On Trump Campaign. [#1] FBI Officials Admit They Spied On
[the] Trump Campaign: The New York Times' story, headlined "Code Name Crossfire Hurricane: The Secret Origins of the Trump Investigation,"
is a dry and gentle account of the FBI's launch of extensive surveillance of affiliates of the Trump campaign. Whereas FBI officials and media
enablers had previously downplayed claims that the Trump campaign had been surveiled, in this story we learn that it was more widespread than previously
acknowledged: [...] This is a stunning admission for those Americans worried that federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies might use their
powers to surveil, leak against, and target Americans simply for their political views or affiliations.
Mueller
Year One: The Real Heroes in Journalism. The reality is that there are only a handful of reporters bravely
bucking the media's status quo and conducting real investigative journalism to expose what, quite possibly, is the biggest
political scandal in U.S. history: How top officials in an outgoing administration colluded with a presidential candidate's
campaign and a major political party for the purpose of discrediting the rival presidential candidate and then stage a soft coup
against him after he won. Out of thousands of reporters in the United States, fewer than a dozen journalists have dared
to cover the ways in which the world's most powerful law enforcement and intelligence apparatus leveraged its authority to try
and destroy Trump's candidacy, then his presidency.
Louisiana
Protects Customers From The 'Danger' of Unlicensed Florists. Flowers are a classic gift. Beautiful bouquets
are available everywhere, but customers in Louisiana are unique in that their florists must obtain licenses to practice their
profession. After a bill that would have repealed the licensing requirement was defeated in the State Senate Agriculture
Committee by a 6 to 1 vote, licensing will remain the case for the immediate future. Louisiana should remove
this licensing requirement for florists. It would create more opportunities for would-be florists, and lower prices for
people looking for flower arrangements, regardless of the occasion.
Waco Biker Trials Update: More Dismissals.
It's hard to think of such a high-profile modern criminal prosecution, following an incident in which so many people dead, where the
prosecution of the case was so badly bungled.
The Process
is the Punishment (As Always). There have been exciting developments in the "Russia investigation". There
always are, because that is the nature of open-ended money-no-object investigations. But, to me, the most interesting
development was the testimony of Michael Caputo, who appeared just before me on Tucker Carlson's show last night. Mr Caputo
was, briefly, a very minor Trump campaign aide — and so his life has been destroyed.
Of
the bureaucracy, by the bureaucracy, and for the bureaucracy. Bullies who abuse their power like Bungling Bob
Mueller and Jim Shady Comey co-opted the national press decades ago. Using leaks to take out critics —
indeed President Nixon — the FBI created this illusion that it is an independent agency that is some unelected
guardian angel of our republic. Comey shattered that image when his agents smashed to smithereens the evidence of
Hillary's breaches of national security in an effort to get her elected so Comey could continue his job. The press
ignored this story.
Dershowitz
on Cohen Wiretap: 'We Are Moving Closer and Closer to the Surveillance State'. Thursday on MSNBC, Harvard law
professor Alan Dershowitz stated that President Donald Trump's longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen being wiretapped by
federal investigators meant America was "moving closer and closer to the surveillance state." [...] Remember that when you wiretap
a lawyer, you are wiretapping his clients and you wiretapping conversations between a lawyer and the client and you are searching
for emails. Where is the American Civil Liberties Union on this? Where are civil libertarians? We live in such a
partisan atmosphere, get Trump at any cost that we are prepared to give up our basic civil liberties in exchange for getting Trump."
Does
equal justice under the law exist in America today? Having two sets of laws — one for the political class and
one for everyone else — accelerated under the administration of President Obama, beginning with Obama's pick for Treasury
secretary. Timothy Geithner was delinquent on his taxes to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars, but became Treasury secretary
in charge of the IRS. He paid no price for that behavior. The Daily Caller discovered from an inspector general's report in
2015 that 1,580 employees of the IRS were found to have not paid taxes over a 10-year period and 61 percent were not fired, but were
given suspensions, reprimands or counseling. Would you or I be treated in the same way? Revelations coming from House and
Senate Intelligence committee investigations have shown how the Obama administration politically weaponized the National Security Agency,
State Department, FBI and the Department of Justice.
A Prosecution
for McCabe? Fired FBI deputy director and discredited Democrat hack Andrew McCabe may soon be prosecuted for
authorizing the leaking of sensitive information to the media and then lying over and over again to investigators about it,
according to reports. The news comes after House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence chairman Devin Nunes
(R-Calif.) told Fox News on Sunday [4/22/2018] that "there was no official intelligence that was used to start this
investigation" of Trump's aides. If Nunes is right, this means an official investigation was launched against a
presidential campaign even though there was no official information supporting it. This is a naked abuse of power,
the stuff of banana republics, something Trump defenders have been saying for some time.
Mueller's
harassment of Hannity may be criminal. Bobby the Mule Mueller used the power of his office to harass Sean
Hannity, a critic of Mueller's witch hunt. Using judge shopping to get a warrant, Mueller raided Michael Cohen's office
not to get the goods on President Trump — he's clean — but to do opposition research on one of the few
commentators willing to take on Mueller and the vast power of the state he controls. The Mule has leaked —
likely through third parties — confidential information about Hannity including his ownership of 870 dwellings
which he rents. Cohen arranged this. My guess is Mueller's activity was criminal.
Deep
State or Democrat State? The real climax of the Hillary investigation came when immunity agreements were handed
out to her associates like candy in exchange for their "cooperation". When Hillary and her people lied to the FBI, it wasn't
a crime. Not only wasn't it a crime, but the whole point of the exercise was immunizing her people from prosecution so that
a Trump administration would have little leverage against them. The investigations are also crimes. And they not only
abuse government power to suppress political opponents, but also work to suppress any counter-investigation of the crime being
committing. While Trump and Cohen had their attorney-client privilege shattered, Cheryl Mills inappropriately claimed
attorney-client privilege in her relationship with Hillary Clinton, even though she had been a government employee, and not
only did the FBI respect the claim, but she got an immunity agreement. What do these three cover-ups have in
common? All three abused law enforcement resources to protect Democrat political assets.
Privatize
911 Services And Hold Your Providers Accountable For Negligence. A recent story highlights the dangers of a
government being entrusted with personal care of individuals. A 911 dispatcher intentionally hung up on thousands of
callers in need of emergency help. She remained employed without anyone noticing. For a year and a half this went
on, and no one noticed. Homicides, robberies, medical emergencies, etc. All ignored. But the individuals
harmed by her cannot bring personal actions against their government. Because the government has something called
governmental immunity. This law is troubling for advocates of limited government. Basically, irrespective of
whether you pay taxes and abide by the law, you are not entitled to 911 services. Unless, you are imprisoned or
otherwise in government custody. Then you are entitled to these services. Troubling, yes. The courts have
held consistently that the governments have no duty to provide care to you. That means you can't sue for damages.
So no matter how wronged you were by 911 response negligence, you can't sue.
Trump
and the attorney-client privilege. Investigators are usually looking to trap an unwary potential defendant into lying to them — a
crime in that environment, even though the potential defendant is not under oath — or unwittingly admitting to them an allegation for which they
need proof. The potential defendant often believes — foolishly, as history has shown — he can actually talk the investigators
out of indicting him.
How Comey Lied About
Spying on Trump Tower. Jim Comey deserves a special place in the annals of sanctimonious frauds in Washington,
D.C. He leaked, lied, bent rules, treated FBI material as his own personal property, violated confidential conversations,
and generally acted like a government unto himself. But now he has the gall to write it all up in the sonorous nonsense
language of "constitutional crisis." His forthcoming memoir amounts to nothing more than the sour grapes of a self-serving
operator over a wholly justified sacking. [...] Comey's wounded ego is not a constitutional crisis. The scandal is not
that he lost his exalted job but that such a pompous creep once held it.
Raid
on Trump lawyer crossed the line into special prosecutorial abuse. We're supposed to be reassured that the FBI
agents who raided the offices and home of Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, were, in Cohen's words, "courteous"
and "respectful." The president's attorney was understandably grateful that the agents didn't replicate the FBI's
tactics at the home of Paul Manafort, Trump's onetime campaign manager. Busting in before dawn, guns drawn, with a "no
knock" warrant while Manafort and his wife were in bed, the agents frisked Mrs. Manafort while she was still in her
nightclothes. Perhaps Cohen thinks if he sounds reasonable, he can appease Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor who
ordered Manafort's arrest, or his other federal prosecutors behind this raid. Or maybe Cohen simply developed the
quickest case of Stockholm syndrome in history. Whatever his reasons, a line has been violated. The government is
going after lawyers now, as part of an investigation that feels as though policy differences and partisan politics have been
criminalized.
The
Real Investigation. President Trump now has real legal peril. The potential jeopardy stems from the
investigation that came to light this week when the FBI conducted raids on the office and residences of his lawyer and
self-professed "fixer," Michael Cohen. I've never thought "collusion with Russia" posed jeopardy. If there had
been anything criminal to that storyline, the politicized anti-Trump factions in the intelligence and law-enforcement
agencies would have leaked it. And, notwithstanding Trump's nauseating nods to Putin, the administration has taken
enough aggressive steps against Russia that it is past time for the Kremlin to broadcast the big kompromat file
if it exists.
American Greatness
and its Enemies. There may have been much more involved, but it is significant that many in the media saw in
this raid — a raid that honest analysts such as Alan Dershowitz pointed out undermined attorney-client privilege and would
never have been tolerated by the ACLU if the target was a liberal — an attempt to uncover evidence of a purported campaign
violation that wrongly sought to aid the President. This was, of all odd things, the payment of $130,000 to porn[ ]star
Stormy Daniels to buy her silence regarding an asserted brief affair with Mr. Trump. One would have thought that
this non-disclosure agreement (NDA), dealing as it does with a matter of private reputation would have been something that
liberals would have thought did not belong in the public square, given their attitude toward President Clinton's escapades
that Democrats believed ought never to have been a part of impeachment proceedings.
Never trust a Never
Trumper. We have a rogue prosecutor. He has sent agents to raid the homes and offices of the president's
former campaign manager and his personal lawyer. This outrage has liberals gloating, be they on the left or be they on
the right of your television screens. Decades of chatter about civil rights turn out to be a facade. They no more
care about the Constitution than a Canada goose does. And the Never Trump wimps once again side with the Big Government
Deep State.
Piers
Morgan: Left Can't Prove Trump-Russia Collusion, So They're 'Moving the Goalposts'. Piers Morgan said the
left has been unable to find solid evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, so Democrats are "moving the
goalposts" and going after President Trump's personal life. "They want to prove to the world that Donald Trump
collaborated with Russians to fix the election [and] that's why he won," Morgan said on "Hannity" on Thursday [4/12/2018].
"So far, they have singularly failed to establish that." He said that's why they're moving on to lurid allegations about
the president's private life, such as his purported 2006 affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels.
'This
Is Third World Stuff': Former DOJ Attorney Suggests Legal Process Being Used to 'Terrorize' Trump. Deputy
Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should have been fired months ago, former Justice Department attorney J. Christian Adams
argued, saying Rosenstein let Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation "get completely out of control."
Rosenstein met with President Trump on Thursday, amid recent calls for Rosenstein's ouster over his role in the Russia probe.
Adams explained on "The Story" on Thursday [4/12/2018] that Mueller originally was supposed to investigate possible collusion
between the Trump campaign and Russia, but the probe has expanded far beyond that.
Rand
Paul: Mueller abused authority; 'every American citizen' could be next. Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., says
that special counsel Robert Mueller has abused his authority by referring President Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen,
to the FBI, which raided Cohen's office Monday morning, seizing business records, emails, and other documentation, including
a record of a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. Paul said the special counsel is no longer looking at Russian
collusion in the 2016 election. "Going after someone's personal attorney is a great overstep, I think, in the authority
of the prosecutor," Paul said.
Tom
Fitton: DOJ Is 'Out of Control,' Mueller 'Ought to Be Shut Down'. Conservative watchdog Judicial Watch
official Tom Fitton on Monday night [4/9/2018] blasted the Department of Justice as "out of control," and suggested special counsel
Robert Mueller's investigation "ought to be shut down." The blast came during Lou Dobb's nightly program on Fox Business,
where both Dobbs and Fox News Channel political and legal analyst Gregg Jarrett blasted the Mueller investigation in general —
and the raid on President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, in particular. In his remarks, Fitton called on
President Donald Trump himself "to intervene and save the Justice Department and FBI from themselves."
Guess
Whose House Wasn't Raided by the FBI. Can't find any collusion between Trump and Russia? Hey, why not
look for collusion between Cohen and professional whore and porn star Stormy Daniels? Was she paid to go away with
campaign funds? Even so, that's an FEC violation punishable by a fine and something that does not require a SWAT
team. It certainly does not compare with money funneled by Team Hillary and the DNC though a law firm to Fusion GPS and
British foreign agent Christopher Steele to put together a fake dossier on Trump using Russian sources. But where were
the raids on the offices of the DNC, the Hillary Clinton campaign, and Fusion GPS? This is the FBI of Andrew McCabe,
Lisa Page, and Peter Strzok, whose mission was to keep Hillary Clinton out of prison and Donald Trump out of the White
House. They never raided the home and office of Cheryl Mills, did they? They never raided Hillary's house or
seized the acid-washed server, did they? But Michael Cohen is a threat to our democracy warranting brute force?
Yes,
rogue prosecutors do try to take out elected leaders; one of them may face jail. As we watch the drama escalate
in the effort to undo the 2016 presidential election, consider the case of another chief executive elected at the same time,
Missouri Governor Eric Greitens. A Republican, Governor Greitens was indicted in February for felony invasion of
privacy by allegedly photographing his former lover, "K.S.," without her knowledge or permission. The indictment was
sought and is being prosecuted by Circuit Attorney (the Missouri name for a district attorney) Kim Gardner, a Democrat who
was elected as the first black Circuit Attorney in St. Louis. Since then, the case has fallen apart, with no
photograph produced, and with the revelation yesterday that the accuser K.S. has admitted under oath that she may have
dreamed the incident. That's right, a sitting governor prosecuted by a Democrat on the basis of something that
was literally dreamed up by the purported victim of the alleged crime.
The
Firestarter: What Happens When the Government Lies About You in Court? In 1963, the Supreme Court
affirmed in Brady v. Maryland that exculpatory evidence withheld from the defense by the prosecution violates
constitutional protections. Ever since then "Brady violations" have resulted in sanctions against prosecutors and
police, as well as overturned criminal convictions. But what happens when the government withholds exculpatory evidence
during the prosecution of a civil lawsuit against an individual or company? Nothing, apparently. With
Brady deemed to apply only to criminal cases, no specific case law punishes a government lawyer for failing to
disclose evidence that would've been helpful to a civil defendant.
Police
can't charge 'exhorbitant' fees for Vegas massacre info, judge rules. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police
Department has every right to try and recoup costs for providing the media with body camera videos, 911 records and written
reports in connection with the city's Oct. 1 massacre, a judge has decided. But police cannot charge "exhorbitant
fees," such as the range of $233,750 to $458,159 the department has estimated for making such data available, Clark County
District Judge Richard Scotti ruled Friday [3/9/2018].
A
Member Of Congress Explains Why The Corruption In Congress Is Much Worse Than You Think. What would you say if
I told you that committee chairs were for sale in Congress? And what would you say if I told you that many members of
Congress spend far more time on the telephone raising money than on the jobs that the people of their states actually elected
them to do? There is a reason why so many Americans absolutely hate Congress. At this moment, Congress has an
approval rating of just 15 percent, and approval ratings for Congress have been at extremely low levels for a very long
time. We all know that Congress has become completely corrupt, that it is completely unresponsive to the American
people and that it has become all about the money.
What good are police?
Police solve less than two-thirds of all murders committed, and in some cities (New Orleans, for instance) the murder clearance
rate is only 30 percent. There is only a 1 in 5 chance that property stolen from you will be recovered.
So what good are police? Police power props up the state and provides cover for all its nefarious activities. For
police, the motto "To protect and serve," is really all about protecting government and their own gang and serving the state
as revenue collectors and enforcers, not protecting the people. They cannot and do not protect us, but they are all too
willing to abuse us. When the left and right embrace and submit to them in their current form, they are advocating for
their own slavery.
DA
Retaliates After Cops Expose Her For Letting Criminals Go. Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg cut off
police access to a database that is essential to criminal investigations after they criticized her actions. The Houston
Police Department lambasted Ogg after she said police were being too hard on illegal immigrants and criminals. In
response, the Democrat attorney issued a memo stating assistant district attorneys would no longer allow police to access the
investigative database regarding court cases. Members of the Houston Police Officer's Union slammed Ogg's office and
said she is jeopardizing their ability to protect the people of Texas by denying them access to essential information.
Florida
emergency medical teams frustrated over 'delay' in Parkland school shooting response. Three high-ranking
Florida officials close to the law enforcement response at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School tell Fox News there was a
delay in Emergency Medical Service getting into the school in the critical moments after [the shooter] opened fire, killing
17 people and wounding at least 14 others. Two separate sources told Fox News some of the EMS teams who requested
to enter the school were told they could not. One source said it was the Broward County Sheriff's Office — which
was the commanding office — that ordered some of the EMS crews not to go into the school when they requested to enter.
Laura Ingraham:
Broward County Deputies Told Not to Enter School. This seriously changes everything. We may have finally
gotten to the bottom of why the Florida school shooter was able to take the life of 17 of his fellow students.
Previously, we reported that on-duty police officers at the site of the shooting neglected to enter the building while the
shooting was ongoing, which could have cost an untold number of lives. Then the Broward County Sheriff attempted to
defend his department, despite the clear cowardice displayed by his officers. Now we just received shocking news that
the on-duty deputies were ordered not to engage with the shooter or enter the building.
The Editor says...
It sounds like the officials in charge were intentionally trying to make the situation worse, so that it would have a greater political
effect. Much like the way Barack H. Obama slow-walked his response to
the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, in order to maximize the damage and bring
condemnation to oil companies in general.
Doctor
Hamburger Diagnoses a Malignant Administrative State. The ominous nature of the administrative state (think
IRS, EPA, DOJ, DEA, Interior, FCC, SEC) transforms our government originally designed as limited and by the consent of the
governed. Emblematic of the administrative state problem is the slow-rolling special counsel coup being orchestrated by
intelligence and law enforcement agencies intent on overturning a presidential election, energized and perpetrated by human
creatures in the embedded federal bureaucracy that occupies a wide swath of swampland on the Potomac River.
New York's AG Uses
Below-The-Belt-Measures On Pro-Lifers So He'd Win His Case. New York's attorney general oversaw and facilitated
secret surveillance on pro-life counselors outside an abortion clinic as well as the creation of a fake identity in an
attempt to win an ongoing case, according to a witness's testimony. Testimony in People v. Griepp et
al — New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman against pro-life advocates counseling women outside of Choices
Women's Medical Center in Jamaica-Queens, N.Y. — illustrated Schneiderman used a witness to spy on pro-lifers via
creating a fake Facebook account to access their information. The witness testified she had used someone else's photo,
listed her occupation as a bank teller, created a fake residency — even posting about the weather there to gain
credibility — and went under the guise of "Shelly Walker." The witness also allegedly accessed hundreds of
pro-life activists' personal information around the country — she gave the data to Schneiderman's office,
according to The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC).
We
Should Care About What Happened to Carter Page. The former Trump aide's reputation has been ruined —
not by a conviction, not by any charges, but by a warrant that was supposed to be secret.
The Ruling Class Hates You.
Truth is, they really don't like the rest of us. No problem, we have our own lives and families. But it's only
not a problem until such disdain is combined with a sense of political entitlement and the coercive power of government.
Which brings us to the political and cultural union of the Democratic Party and the permanent political class called the deep
state, that forms the unelected, unaccountable fourth branch of government that wields so much power up to and
including the police power of the FBI.
When
Federal Prosecutors Go Bad. [Sidney] Powell and [Harvey] Silverglate write about the horror faced by regular,
even prominent citizens whom the FBI and DOJ destroyed, or tried to destroy, using their unlimited resources and the trust
of the courts and the public. From the very beginning of the prosecution when the affidavits for charges are submitted
to the court, the honesty and fairness of the prosecutors is tested, and all too often, ambitious and aggressive prosecutors
betray that trust. Most of all, these books warn that the character and virtue of prosecutors are the critical factor
in the proper conduct of a prosecution, the choice of target, the charge made, and the conduct of the discovery and the
trial. Prosecutors have all the cards, and if they don't conduct an honest and fair prosecution, innocent people are
harmed, destroyed by their striving for conviction at any cost, even by cheating or by abuse of the process.
Bad
People Lied to a Kangaroo Court. The only people who think that the government in a non-adversarial, secret,
non-reviewable judicial proceeding will produce "all material and relevant facts," including "information potentially
favorable to the target of the FISA application," are those pathetically deluded souls who believe that when rules,
regulations, and laws are promulgated everyone complies, including the government that promulgated them. They're always
shocked when reality proves otherwise. The rest of us might want to consider what it took for this exposure of
potential government wrongdoing before the FISC. The House Intelligence Committee (HIC) pressed for months and was forced to
threaten subpoenas before the Department of Justice and the FBI turned over the evidence upon which its memorandum is
based. If this wasn't such a high-profile partisan battle, impinging on the presidency, that effort never would have
been made. Had Hillary Clinton been elected or Democrats controlled Congress, none of this would have seen the light of
day. The intelligence agencies and the FBI can rest assured, it will be business as usual before the FISC:
non-adversarial, secret, non-reviewable proceedings in which they can allege, unchallenged, pretty much anything they want,
their surveillance requests rubber-stamped by the court (historically it's approved over 99 percent of all requests).
Worse Than Watergate.
The FISA Abuse Memo is out and now we know why the Democrats were desperate to keep its contents hidden from the public: it
confirms the worst fears not just of President Trump's supporters but of everyone concerned about the abuse of police power,
government corruption, and the sanctity of our elections. The memo shows interference in the 2016 presidential election
by hostile elements within a United States intelligence agency. It wasn't the Russians we had to worry about —
it was rogue actors at the highest levels of the FBI and Department of Justice. Left unanswered is to what extent the
West Wing knew about or was complicit in this gross abuse of power.
Democracy's
Highest Crime and Misdemeanor. Is there sufficient decency and courage in the midst of Washington's swamp to compel the pursuit of
justice wherever in the Ruling Class it leads and then to prosecute the lawbreakers — whomever they are? First, it's vital to understand
that when you give a pass — or worse you give multiple successive passes — to lawbreakers, you not only protect those who violated the law,
but you empower and encourage would-be lawbreakers to do the same or worse. Second, when laws are not enforced they cease to have meaning.
And that's when your nation finds itself on a slippery slope of arbitrary and subjective rule and cronyism, which ends in ruin... such as
no borders, the hollowing out of protections in the Bill of Rights, and the politicization of government agencies, to name a few.
Why
aren't the Democrats horrified by the corruption at the FBI and DOJ? It is becoming clearer by the day, after
over a year of investigations, that the Obama administration did indeed weaponize the DOJ, the FBI, the CIA, the ATF, the IRS
and the NSA. Over those eight years, each of the above agencies was transformed into an arm of the Democratic Party tasked
with crippling the opposition and abrogating the Constitution. Since all of the mainstream media already were arms of
the DNC, it is well and truly a miracle that Donald Trump prevailed throughout his campaign to win the election, as the
entire DC bureaucracy and media were aligned against him. Most of them still are. Those law enforcement institutions
in which Americans have put their trust and faith for many decades have been thoroughly compromised by a group of bad actors at
the top, self-appointed arbiters of electoral politics.
Real
Americans vs. Our Effete Elites. The revealed corruption of the FBI and DOJ is tragic and largely the
responsibility of the Clintons and Obama. Obama built upon, took his cues from the Clintons, the most corrupt family
ever to wield political power in America. Astonishingly, no one of the left seems to care about how criminal the Obama
administration was or how unscrupulous the Clintons have always been. [...] No one on the left seems to care about the
horrific abuse of power that occurred under Obama. He effectively turned our law enforcement agencies into a Stasi that
spies on its own citizens.
Deborah Jordahl:
Wisconsin's Comey-over. What do a former attorney general, two former judges, two licensed attorneys and a
former state legislator have in common? They presided over the Wisconsin Ethics Commission when it opened its doors on
July 1, 2016. This agency and the Wisconsin Elections Commission were created to replace Wisconsin's Government
Accountability Board (GAB) following its participation in an unconstitutional John Doe investigation into Republican Governor
Scott Walker, his aides and allies. As a longtime conservative strategist and consultant, I had a front row seat to what the
Wisconsin Supreme Court called "a perfect storm of wrongs," visited upon people who are "wholly innocent of any wrongdoing."
Constitution is no longer
the law of the land. Now the law is whatever a federal judge says it is. A federal judge on the 9th
Circuit Court — William Alsup — ruled that President Donald Trump's executive action phasing out the
Obama-era DACA amnesty program is illegal and ordered the government to resume granting DACA waivers. Trump announced
the phase-out weeks ago, claiming the program established by his predecessor via executive order was illegal. In doing
so Trump sought to throw creation of immigration law back into the laps of the lawmakers — Congress. Alsup,
a Bill Clinton appointee, ruled the program legal. In his ruling, Alsup concluded that without a nationwide injunction,
DACA recipients would likely suffer irreparable harm, leading to harmful ripple effects on the nation's economy and
healthcare system.
California
Homeowners Association Forces Residents to Keep Garage Doors Open to Deter Squatters. While the purpose behind an HOA — to
keep the neighborhoods neat and orderly — sounds great, it's important to remember that HOA membership basically means that your neighbors
get a say in what you do with your property. It's not enough to have federal, state, and local governments issuing rules over what you can and
can't do. No, we had to create these petty tyrannies to stick their noses in as well. Different HOAs have different rules, to be sure,
but they all focus on the mundane, trivial stuff. That's because the people who are attracted to rules like HOA boards and elected offices
are people who are often attracted to power in general.
Louisiana
Teacher Handcuffed at School Board Meeting After She Questions Administrator Pay Raise. An English
language-arts teacher in Louisiana's Vermilion Parish School District was removed from a school board meeting and handcuffed
Monday night after asking questions about administrator pay, video of the event shows. Deyshia Hargrave asked why board
members were planning to give the superintendent a raise when teachers had not been rewarded a pay raise in years, the
Washington Post reported.
Teacher
handcuff video leads to death threats, investigation. A Louisiana school board's office was temporarily locked
down after members received death threats when a video emerged Tuesday showing a teacher screaming while being handcuffed at
a board meeting. Vermilion Parish School Board President Anthony Fontana told The Advertiser the threats came from as
far away as South America, Australia and England, as well as other U.S. states. He said the threats have been reported
to local police and the FBI. The threats came less than a day after middle school English teacher Deyshia Hargrave was
forcibly removed from Monday night's meeting. She was handcuffed and jailed after questioning pay policies —
specifically a proposed raise for the superintendent — during a public comment period.
A
Ludicrous Ruling That Trump Can't End DACA. Yesterday [1/9/2018], Judge William Alsup ordered the Trump
administration to keep its predecessor's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in place. This
remarkable 49-page order has all the aesthetics of a judicial decision but is, at heart, an amateur act of punditry.
Judge Alsup paints the picture of a divided White House, wherein "the Chief Executive publicly favors the very program [his
Administration] has ended." Citing a "presidential tweet," the court suggests that DACA's recision "was contrived to
give the administration a bargaining chip to demand funding for a border wall in exchange for reviving DACA." These
talking points could have been plagiarized from the MSNBC chyron. Such rhetoric in a judicial decision would have
been unthinkable barely a year ago. But now it passes for the new normal. Once again, the judiciary has attempted
to shackle President Trump from making his own judgments about how to exercise his own power. The Supreme Court
has reversed Judge Alsup's outlandish rulings on DACA before. And it will do so again.
Trump
and Sessions must tell this amnesty judge to shove it. Not in [Alexander] Hamilton's wildest imaginings could
he ever have envisioned a time when a lowly district judge can force a president to make denizens of aliens, contrary to the
most foundational sovereignty statutes. Even King George couldn't do what Obama did on immigration without the consent
of Parliament, according to the Library of Congress. In that sense, the power of lower court judges has been elevated
to a higher status than that of a king, much less a president. Remember when Hamilton said even the Supreme Court would
have "neither force nor will" on political issues even governing American citizens? Those were good days. It's
not worth delving into the details of the ruling from this Antifa-style judge in San Francisco who declared last night that
Trump must continue renewing work permits, visas, and Social Security cards for people who, pursuant to law, must be
deported. After all, Judge William Alsup is merely continuing "the resistance," with the power of supremacy that even
conservative legal eagles have bestowed upon the judicial robes. Let's put aside the fact that it is a settled,
uninterrupted stream of case law that illegal aliens are considered as if they are outside the country and do not have
standing to sue in court. This is why we have administrative immigration judges, given that aliens have no access to
Article III courts.
The Judicial
Rebellion. We are witnessing a treasonous rebellion by leftist judges who are declaring the last election null and void.
At the core of these traitors' arguments is the belief that the people do not have the right to express their views through the electoral
process. Essentially, these courts are declaring that President Trump doesn't have the same authority as his predecessor and that the
powers of the executive branch are constrained by what the judiciary thinks is good policy. These judges assert that President Trump
can't overrule the executive orders of his predecessor with his own executive orders. If that were the case, elections would be
meaningless, since one president could effectively prevent the people from rejecting his position by voting for a candidate who disagreed
with him. We see this in the judge's ruling on DACA. Ignoring for a moment the fact that DACA was an unconstitutional usurpation
of power by Obama, there is still a huge problem with a court effectively declaring that one president, Obama, can make edicts that other
presidents can't change.
Judicial
Anarchy Over DACA. A federal judge, U.S. District Judge William Alsup, took it upon himself to order that the
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), put in place by former President Obama's executive order and wound
down towards ultimate termination by President Trump's own executive order last September, must stay in place at least for
the time being. The judge issued a preliminary injunction against ending DACA while lawsuits over President Trump's
decision go forward. The effect of Judge Alsup's order is to throw out a temporary lifeline to the illegal immigrant
"Dreamers" who have or have had DACA protection to be able to continue staying and working in the country while they apply
for renewals. Needless to say, President Trump was not happy with this latest example of judicial overreach.
Judge
rules DACA legal, blocks Trump's decision to end program. A federal judge in California blocked President Trump's planned
phaseout of the Obama-era DACA deportation amnesty in a ruling late Tuesday [1/9/2018] that could upend the negotiations on Capitol Hill
over "Dreamers" future. Judge William Alsup, a Clinton appointee to the bench, ruled the DACA program legal — the first
court to do so — and said the administration illegally cut corners in canceling it. He ordered the administration
to allow illegal immigrants to renew their DACA applications just as they would have under President Obama.
Judge blocks Trump administration
plan to roll back DACA. A federal judge in California late Tuesday [1/9/2018] temporarily blocked the Trump administration's
efforts to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Judge William Alsup also said the administration must resume
receiving DACA renewal applications. But the ruling is limited — the administration does not need to process applications
for those who have never before received DACA protections, he said.
Case
Against Bundys Dismissed: Obama's FBI And DOJ Are The Real Criminals. Judge Navarro's ruling was based on
the egregious misconduct of the FBI and Justice Department lawyers handling the case, that led her to conclude that a new
trial would not be sufficient to address the problems in the case and would provide the prosecution with an unfair advantage
going forward. The judge criticized both the prosecution and the FBI for not providing evidence to the defense as
required under court rules. "The court finds that the universal sense of justice has been violated," Navarro said
according to reporting by Robert Anglen for the Reno Gazette Journal. Navarro said it was clear the FBI was involved in
the prosecution of the case, and that it was not a coincidence that most of the withheld evidence came from the FBI.
Is
there a single Democrat anywhere who [cares] about America? We now have ironclad evidence that the Obama
administration mounted at least two distinct and extraordinary efforts to weaponize government against its political
opponents. It used the instrumentalities of government to target members of the opposite party and —
worse still — to influence the outcome of a presidential election.
Dangers
of Government Control. The Federal Reserve Board controls our money supply. Its governors are appointed by the
president and confirmed by the Senate and serve 14-year staggered terms. They have the power to cripple an economy, as they
did during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Their inept monetary policy threw the economy into the Great Depression, during which
real output in the United States fell nearly 30 percent and the unemployment rate soared as high as nearly 25 percent.
The most often stated cause of the Great Depression is the October 1929 stock market crash. Little is further from the truth.
The Great Depression was caused by a massive government failure led by the Federal Reserve's rapid 25 percent contraction of
the money supply. The next government failure was the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which increased U.S. tariffs by more than
50 percent. Those failures were compounded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal legislation.
Jail
Hillary and Huma, Not Kristian Saucier. Most Americans are not familiar with the name of Kristian Saucier, but they should
be. He is the U.S. Navy sailor sentenced to prison for taking pictures inside the nuclear submarine he served in. He was not
a spy for a foreign power. He had no intent, to coin a phrase, to do anything with these photos except keep them as personal memories
of his proud and honorable service. [...] No doubt Saucier watched with bitterly ironic interest as the email scandals involving former
secretary of state Hillary Clinton and aide Huma Abedin unfolded with tales of private servers, mishandled classified emails, smashed devices,
and scrubbed hard drives. After all that, despite laying out a case for Hillary's indictment and incarceration, FBI director James Comey,
who was writing her exoneration memo before even conducting a sham of an investigation, said no prosecutor worth his salt would bring a case
because Hillary lacked "intent" even though the law regarding mishandling of classified information does not require intent.
Unsealed
Court Docs Show How Prosecutors Tried To Rig Bundy Trial. Unsealed court documents detail how the team of
prosecutors tasked with convicting Cliven Bundy and his sons of crimes relating to a 2014 armed standoff failed to turn over
potential exculpatory evidence to the court, The Oregonian reports. The Bundys' case ended in a mistrial Dec. 20 after
Judge Gloria Navarro ruled that prosecutors violated the civil rights of the defendants by withholding evidence supporting the
Bundys' case. Navarro is considering dismissing the case "with prejudice" and blocking prosecutors from retrying the
case. Her decision will come Jan. 8, according to The New York Times.
FBI
Chapter of Hillary Clinton Fan Club Probes President Trump. Recent weeks have revealed the chilling extent to which special counsel
Robert Mueller, a former FBI chief, has surrounded himself with pro-Hillary acolytes who scorn Trump and even his voters. At worst, this is
judicial corruption, rooted in bottomless affection for the subject of one inquiry and boundless disdain for the target of a different probe.
At best, this creates the appearance of corruption, whereby Mueller's team and their FBI and DOJ colleagues seem so pro-Hillary and so
anti-Trump that even their totally even-handed and perfectly honest conclusions would be attacked as either a phony exoneration of Hillary, a
fake prosecution of Trump, or an over-reaction to criticism that prompted the opposite results. With Drano-like efficiency, these outcomes
would corrode confidence in federal law-enforcement agencies and the rule of law.
The Wrong
Man. In the fall of 2001, a nation reeling from the horror of 9/11 was rocked by a series of deadly anthrax
attacks. As the pressure to find a culprit mounted, the FBI, abetted by the media, found one. The wrong
one. This is the story of how federal authorities blew the biggest anti-terror investigation of the past
decade — and nearly destroyed an innocent man. Here, for the first time, the falsely accused,
Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, speaks out about his ordeal.
The
State Government Agency That Spied on Citizens. The 88-page report by Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel
details the notorious "John Doe" investigations that went after almost every conservative, nonprofit organization in
Wisconsin (the state chapter of Club for Growth among them) for supposed violations of campaign finance laws. Except
that there were not any actual violations of the law, according to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The court shut down the
prosecutions in 2015, calling the legal theory under which the prosecutors were pursuing the case "unsupported in either
reason or law." The state's highest court used the word "amazing" in describing the "breadth" of documents seized by
prosecutors through numerous, wide-ranging subpoenas and search warrants. This included "virtually every document
possessed by the [targets] relating to every aspect of their lives, both personal and professional, over a five-year span."
The report from Schimel, a Republican, has an unbelievable list of 218 subpoenas and search warrants issued in the
investigation — and this is only a "partial" list.
Stuck
in the Middle with the Circumlocution Office. Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit is not among his finest
novels [...] but it deserves its place in the literary pantheon not only for its depiction of life in the Marshalsea debtor's
prison (something with which Dickens had personal experience) but for its invention of the Circumlocution Office. Fittingly,
Dickens calls this chapter, "Containing the whole Science of Government." It's the ultimate revenge of the bureaucrats on the
masses of suffering humanity who pay their inflated salaries and expect something in return: [...] Another word for such an entity
is, of course, a racket, a criminal or quasi-criminal enterprise designed to enrich the barnacles while at the same time absolving
them of all responsibility, including having to work for a living. In America, we call it the federal government.
Letter
of Notice From Trump Transition To Congress Outlining Illegal Search and Seizure by Special Counsel Robert
Mueller. It is my belief, based on mounting evidence, a specific cast of characters within the Mueller "Russia
Election Interference" probe were placed there to protect people behind the FBI's initial false claims. Those claims
formed the basis for the counterintelligence operation against 2016 presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Woman
faces criminal charges for rescuing starving dog. A dog rescued in Scioto County was so emaciated, an official
said it lost half of its body weight. That official, Rhonda Rose from the Scioto Area Humane Society, said she rescued
the dog at the last minute, only to be charged with two crimes. Rose works as the Treasurer of the Humane
Society. She has been charged with criminal trespass and petty theft after rescuing the dog.
Whistleblower
Says CFPB Falsified Documents to Fine Payday Lender. A former employee of the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau is calling for an investigation after accusing managers of falsifying documents to impose fines on a payday
lender. Cassandra Jackson, a former CFPB examiner in the southeast division, sent a letter last week to Attorney
General Jeff Sessions also accusing managers of "widespread racism and gender discrimination." Jackson said her superiors
at the CFPB asked her to falsify documents during her investigation into a Texas-based payday lending company, Ace Cash
Express. "During the course of this examination, I was asked to change, remove, and otherwise falsify documents
connected with this examination," Jackson said. Jackson said she was asked to remove document evidence proving Ace Cash
Express was complying with CFPB rules and to write a report including findings she knew to be "false and fabricated."
One
Mueller-Investigation Coincidence Too Many. Something has gone terribly wrong with the Mueller
investigation. The investigation is venturing well beyond the original mandate of rooting out evidence of Russian
collusion. Indeed, the word "collusion" is now rarely invoked at all. It has given way to its successor,
"obstruction." The latter likely will soon beget yet another catchphrase to justify the next iteration of the
investigations. There seems far less special investigatory concern with the far more likely Russian collusion in the
matters of the origins and dissemination of the Fusion GPS/Steele dossier, and its possible role in the Obama-administration
gambit of improper or illegal surveilling, unmasking, and leaking of the names of American citizens.
The
Swamp against the People. [Scroll down] These facts support two conclusions: [#1] The United States
Congress is the only constitutional body with sufficient political power to declare the current Mueller witch hunt null and
void. If President Trump or the DOJ exercises its constitutional rights to do so, the acting party will inevitably
be attacked by the corrupt media and the left. [#2] The office of the "special counsel" is inherently a corrupt and
partisan, cancerous growth on the U.S. Constitution. That made up office must be abolished, and if existing constitutional
prohibitions against arbitrary witch hunts are not sufficiently clear, a new amendment to the US Constitution should be passed
on an urgent basis to make it clear beyond any doubt at all.
How
the FBI Criminalized Trump's Transition. What do you call a system of government that cannot tolerate a
transition of power without corrupt machinations by those unwilling to cede control? Banana Republic is a term that
comes to mind. The Special Counsel was appointed to determine whether Russia colluded with Trump to steal the
election. Michael Flynn was indicted for a conversation he had with the Russian ambassador on December 28, 2016, seven
weeks after the election. That was the day after the outgoing president expelled 35 Russian diplomats —
including gardeners and chauffeurs — for interfering in the election. Yes, that really happened. The
Obama administration had wiretapped Flynn's conversation with the ambassador, hoping to find him saying something they could
use to support their wild story about collusion. The outrage, for some reason, is not that an outgoing administration
was using wiretaps to listen in on a successor's transition. It is that Flynn might have signaled to the Russians that
the Trump administration would have a different approach to foreign policy.
Head
of House intelligence panel finds evidence of abuse in US government surveillance. House Intelligence Committee Chairman
Devin Nunes, R-Calif., told Fox News on Friday [12/8/2017] that his investigators have already uncovered evidence of "abuse" in the
U.S. government's surveillance practices. "I believe there's evidence that abuses have occurred," Nunes said in his first
interview since the House Ethics Committee dismissed allegations he had wrongly released classified information as part of the
panel's Russia investigation. "We have had an ongoing investigation into DOJ [Department of Justice] and FBI since mid-summer
for both FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court] abuse and other matters that we can't get into too much. But it is
very concerning." [...] "I hate to use the word corrupt, but they become so dirty that, who is watching the watchmen? Who
is investigating these people? There is no one."
Stunning
Report: Left-Wing Prosecutorial Crusaders Spied on Wisconsin Republicans, Defied Court Orders. If you
aren't familiar with the "John Doe" investigation that rocked Wisconsin politics a few years ago, or are hazy on the details,
go back and read my coverage of how the Left engaged in gross abuses of criminal law to intimidate, harass and silence
conservatives in the state. The specifics were chilling — from pre-dawn raids on political activists' homes,
to stifling gag orders preventing them from saying a peep about what was happening to them, all in pursuit of criminalizing
and punishing the Badger State conservative movement. Eventually, one target violated his gag order and blew the
whistle on the whole operation, eventually leading to investigations of the investigations, and multiple courts shutting down
the witch hunts with extreme prejudice. It was a black mark on the state's politics, and it signaled just how ruthless
the Left had become in its efforts to exact personal and legal vengeance on the political forces that had defeated them in a
series of major electoral and policy battles in Madison.
The
Fish and Wildlife Service is out of control and we should all be concerned. The Obama era tradition of
bureaucratic overreach is alive and well in the Fish and Wildlife Service. Using an endangered frog, the Fish and
Wildlife Service is attempting to dictate how private landowners use their land. The saga of the dusky gopher frog is
lengthy, but one perfectly illustrative of federal government overreach into the rights of the private citizenry.
Protecting endangered species is part of the function of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but a recent string of court
decisions, based on a classic sue-and-settle case, has given the agency virtually unlimited power. And it's all thanks
to a frog.
Don't Register Anything.
Like too many jurisdictions, Hawaii requires gun owners to register their firearms. Also like an excess of other
control-freaky places, the state requires medical marijuana users to register themselves with the state Department of
Health. As it turns out, those who dutifully abide by both requirements find themselves in trouble. Hawaii may
allow the use of marijuana for medicinal uses, and even require registration of its users, but the state continues to regard
the practice as a violation of federal law.
Nothing About Collusion.
There is a basic lesson here for anyone who enters government service: do not ever talk to the FBI unless your lawyer is
present. Just ask Scooter Libby, who was punished for making allegedly false statements to FBI investigators. In the
Flynn affair, there was no need for the FBI to ask any questions about the telephone chats, since the transcripts were available
from the get-go. It is said that a skilled prosecutor can indict a ham sandwich, and a special counsel has even greater
powers. Furthermore, prosecutors' motives are not limited to the pursuit of the truth. The "accomplishments" of
aggressive prosecutors often have very little to do with the facts, but rather with the number of scalps they can hang on
their war belts. Rare is the person who can insist on his innocence — of anything — if a special
prosecutor is out to get him. The prosecutor can catch you giving an incorrect or confused answer to questions ... about
anything.
NSA wanted to use the
Espionage Act to prosecute a journalist for using FOIA. Declassified documents in the Central Intelligence
Agency's archives show that while the CIA was looking to include the Freedom Of Information Act in its war on leaks, the
National Security Agency was seriously considering using the Espionage Act to target target Puzzle Palace author James
Bamford for using FOIA. While Bamford has briefly discussed this on a handful of occasions, the declassified memos and
briefings from NSA confirm that this was more than just an intimidation tactic or a passing thought — the NSA had
truly wanted to jail a journalist for his use of public records. When the Agency determined that this was unlikely to
happen, they moved on to exploring other legal avenues which could be used to punish Bamford for his FOIA work.
Meet
The Very Shady Prosecutor Robert Mueller Has Hired For The Russia Investigation. Long before Donald Trump ran
for president or most people had heard of Paul Manafort, fabled Judge Alex Kozinski proclaimed a veritable epidemic of
prosecutorial misconduct. The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times and even The New York Times joined the
Kozinski chorus. Abuses of power by prosecutors have changed the balance of power in the United States Senate and sent
countless innocent people to prison. Prosecutors have unbridled discretion. With the stroke of a pen, they can
indict and ruin anyone, while they enjoy immunity from suit and are rarely even rebuked. Now, those close to the
president have crossed the scope of a squad of prosecutors highly trained and experienced in abuses of that
power — especially Andrew Weissmann, who just indicted Manafort and Richard Gates.
When
Clinton Donors Prosecute And Judge Trump Associates. In May, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson dismissed a lawsuit by
the families of the victims of Benghazi against Hillary Clinton. Judge Jackson decided that the families couldn't sue Hillary either for
wrongful death or for defamation. That isn't too surprising as Jackson is a former Clinton donor who had been appointed by Obama.
And a Clinton donor should never have been ruling on a Clinton case. But now Judge Jackson will be presiding over the Paul Manafort
case. Presiding over Manafort's indictment is Judge Deborah A. Robinson. Judge Robinson's most prominent previous case was
the Berger trial. Sandy Berger, Bill Clinton's former National Security Adviser, stole classified documents about the terror failures
of the Clinton administration, hid documents under a construction trailer, lied about taking them and destroyed some of them.
The
Runaway Prosecutor. [T]he Constitution provides legislative, executive and judicial branches but makes no mention
of a hazy, indeterminate branch of government called special prosecutors. Because ours is a system of checks and balances,
not one in which roving prosecutors are given free rein to go after targets of opportunity even if that means making law instead
of following it. And the opposition can be expected to respond in kind. Just as the investigation of Watergate led
to the investigation of Iran-Contra. And now the investigation of this president's aides will lead to the next scandal.
Because independent prosecutors seem to have as their motto Keep Busy — and tend to build little Justice Departments
of their own that morph into legal empires. Now is the time to short-circuit this pernicious process and return to simple
law and order.
FBI
agents manhandled Manafort and his wife during pre-dawn raid in intimidation effort. Just how rough special
counsel Robert Mueller is playing with Paul Manafort goes back before this week's indictment — to the FBI's
no-knock raid in July. It has been reported that the agents checked Mr. Manafort and wife Kathleen for guns as they
broke into the Alexandria condo pre-dawn by picking the lock. A source familiar with the case told The Washington Times
the search was even more intrusive: An agent patted down Mrs. Manafort before she was allowed to get out of bed.
Lawsplainer:
The George Papadopoulos Guilty Plea. The complaint shows that the FBI used a search warrant to get emails that
contradicted Papadopoulos. The timeline isn't explicit, but it's possible — in fact, probable —
that they had the emails or other evidence before they even interviewed him, and knew he was lying at the time. To
convict on a Section 1001 charge for lying to the government, the government doesn't have to prove that you successfully lied
or that the lie delayed or impeded them. They only have to prove that the lie was on a subject of the sort that could
be relevant to the investigation. That's why interviewing subjects and targets hoping they will lie to you and thus
make a case for you is a common tactic in federal investigations. If Papadopoulos had shut up and refused to talk to
the FBI — the smart thing to do — he almost certainly would not be charged with anything yet, and could
have escaped any charges ever. He had to plead to a federal felony because he talked to the FBI and lied, and then
foolishly tried to destroy evidence. That is a feature, not a bug, of federal investigations.
Robert
Mueller's well-timed indictment. Special Counsel Robert Mueller plans to indict someone this week, we are
told. Nobody knows whom or for what, but I know why. People suspect that a Trump ally will be indicted for
something vaguely related to colluding with the Russian Government. We do not know any more details than that because
we just cannot find any crime there. So why is there such a hurry to indict a Republican now? The key is that the
indictment comes in late October. Right before a November election. There is pattern of October indictments
against Republicans.
FBI
Informant's Lawyer — Obama Admin 'Threatened' My Client And His Career. A former FBI informant who
blew the whistle on a high-profile bribery case involving a Russian energy company was intimidated by Obama administration
lawyers into dropping a civil suit against the government last year, his attorney says. Victoria Toensing, the lawyer
for the informant, told The Daily Caller's Vince Coglianese that Obama Justice Department lawyers told her client that "his
reputation and liberty [was] in jeopardy" if he did not drop a lawsuit against the government. On Wednesday
[10/25/2017], the Trump Justice Department released the informant from a confidentiality agreement, clearing the way for him
to testify before several congressional committees about his undercover work at Uranium One, a Canada-based energy company
that has ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton and their family foundation.
Lawyer:
Obama Admin Threatened FBI Informant's 'Reputation And Liberty' If He Talked During Election. The lawyer for
the confidential FBI informant who exposed that Russian nuclear officials engaged in bribery, kickbacks, money laundering,
and extortion in their attempts to corner the U.S. uranium market under the Obama administration revealed the threats her
client received from the Obama administration if he didn't keep quiet during the 2016 presidential election. Victoria
Toensing, the informant's attorney, told WMAL DC's "Mornings On The Mall" host Vince Coglianese on Thursday that under the
Obama administration, lawyers from Loretta Lynch's Department of Justice (DOJ) coerced her client into dropping a lawsuit
against the government last year.
Federal
judge rules illegal-immigrant minor has right to abortion. Illegal-immigrant minors in the U.S. have an
unfettered constitutional right to obtain an abortion, a federal judge ruled Wednesday [10/18/2017], ordering both the Trump
administration and Texas officials to back off and allow a 17-year-old girl being held in a government-run shelter to be
taken to a clinic. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who was appointed by President Obama, said during a hearing she was
"astounded" that the administration was trying to hinder the girl, identified in court papers only as "J.D." "Despite the
fact that she's in this country illegally, she still has constitutional rights," the judge said.
The Editor says...
Really? Everybody who steps across the border inherits the protection of the U.S. Constitution? I don't think so. Moreover,
what part of the Constitution legalizes abortion, makes it a right, and bestows that right on everybody who sneaks across the border?
Why
is rebuilding after storms the federal government's responsibility? The hurricane devastation is severe.
What should the federal government do? Give us lots of money, say many in the wounded states. Rep. Sheila
Jackson Lee (D-Texas) demanded "about $150 billion" — just for Texas. So far, Congress has agreed to
$15 billion in hurricane relief. But more will come. Few Americans will object. The House vote for the
first $7.9 billion was 419-3. But let's take a breath. Why is rebuilding the federal government's responsibility?
Nothing
Makes Liberals Angrier Than Us Normals Insisting On Our Rights. I don't agree with liberals often, because I'm not an idiot and because I love America,
but when they once again say, "We must have a conversation about guns!" I still couldn't agree more. [...] But we really don't need to have a conversation
about our rights to keep and bear arms. They're rights. There's nothing to talk about. This goes for all our rights that the left hates,
like the rights to speak and write freely, to practice our religion as we see fit, and to not be railroaded by liberal authority without due process. Leftists
hate our rights because they hate us, and when we assert our rights it gets in the way of their malicious schemes to dominate and control us.
Judicial
Watch representing Clarice Feldman in her lawsuit against DC Government. Federal law requires that DC's annual
budget be approved by a majority or two-thirds vote of the DC Council and have affirmative appropriation passed by both
Houses of Congress and presented to the president for signing. In 2013, DC passed the Budget Autonomy Act of 2012,
which "purportedly grants the District authority to incur obligations and expend local tax and fee revenue without an
appropriation passed by both Houses of Congress and presented to the President for signing." In other words, DC has sought to
remove appropriation authority from Congress and grant it to itself. "This is quite simply a case of politicians gone
wild. The DC government acts as if it can violate federal law and ignore the U.S. Constitution without repercussions," said
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "It is a federal crime to spend federal dollars without congressional authorization."
Mueller
Scorches the Earth. Robert Mueller's sprawling special-counsel investigation is playing hardball. It was not enough to
get a search warrant to ransack the Virginia home of Paul Manafort, even as the former Trump campaign chairman was cooperating with congressional
investigators. Mueller's [investigators] persuaded a judge to give them permission to pick the door lock. That way, they could break
into the premises in the wee hours, while Manafort and his wife were in bed sleeping. They proceeded to secure the premises — of a man they
are reportedly investigating for tax and financial crimes, not gang murders and Mafia hits — by drawing their guns on the stunned
couple, apparently to check their pajamas for weapons. Mueller's probe more resembles an empire, with 17 prosecutors retained
on the public dime. So ... what exactly is the crime of the century that requires five times the number of lawyers the Justice Department
customarily assigns to crimes of the century? No one can say.
With
a Picked Lock and a Threatened Indictment, Mueller's Inquiry Sets a Tone. Dispensing with the plodding pace
typical of many white-collar investigations, Mr. Mueller's team has used what some describe as shock-and-awe tactics to
intimidate witnesses and potential targets of the inquiry. Mr. Mueller has obtained a flurry of subpoenas to
compel witnesses to testify before a grand jury, lawyers and witnesses say, sometimes before his prosecutors have taken the
customary first step of interviewing them. One witness was called before the grand jury less than a month after his
name surfaced in news accounts. The special counsel even took the unusual step of obtaining a subpoena for one of
Mr. Manafort's former lawyers, claiming an exception to the rule that shields attorney-client discussions from scrutiny.
Filibuster is Senate
invention to aid and abet senators. First of all, let's get it straight. There is no such thing as
filibuster in the United States Constitution. The notion that this was an invention of the Founding Fathers is just
wishful thinking by senators who want to give their shameless power grab the imprimatur of legitimacy. Actually, the
Constitution provides that a simple majority in both the House and Senate is sufficient to do business. We know that
was the plan because the authors of the Constitution spelled out only a handful of circumstances when a super-majority would
be required such as ratifying treaties.
The
Democrats' War on First Responder Services. Government derives much of its moral authority to tax from its
obligation to provide public safety, health and education. Yet as public-sector pension plans create ever-greater
demands upon local and state financial resources, The Democrats' machine funnels so much tax revenue into the corrupt bargain
the party made with unions that states and municipalities must rob local public services of funds in order to give their
constituents outrageous salary increases, bonuses, benefits and what is called "other pay." There are two types of demands
for this money: salary increases and pensions. Even while revenues increase, the demand for public pensions and salaries
has grown so fast that it has outrun the increases in tax revenue. And rather than stabilize pensions or go to 401K type
plans, municipalities and states have chosen to violate the Constitution and cut back on essential government public services.
Parents
Catch FBI In Plot To Force Mentally Ill Son To Be A Right Wing Terrorist. It's become a near-weekly
occurrence. Somewhere in some state, the FBI will announce that they've foiled yet another terrorist plot and saved
lives. However, as the data shows, the majority of these cases involve psychologically diminished patsies who've been
entirely groomed, armed, and entrapped by FBI agents. Simply put, the FBI manufactures terror threats and then takes
credit for stopping them. While many of these cases have garnered attention and been exposed in the alternative media,
a recent case out of Oklahoma sets a new low for FBI and exposes how insidious these plots can be.
This Is Not
The United States. What is the technical moment when the Constitution failed? Maybe that goes as far
back as Theodore Roosevelt when he decided that it would be a good idea to occupy huge swaths of the Western states.
Make no mistake, these are not states in the same way another state might have 3-5% federally-owned land somewhere as an
island in the mass of privately-owned land. Western states are between 35-85% federally-owned lands. That is
an occupation and I often refer to the Western states as the Occupied States of America.
No Mass Casualty Incidents on U.S. Soil Since
Trump Victory. In late 2001, after 9/11, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld created the Pentagon's
Office of Strategic Influence (OSI). OSI activities include strategic influence, special plans, psychological operations
(psy-ops), and perception management. The DoD has identified the information domain as its new "asymmetric flank."
The level of use of perception management continues to grow throughout the military. There are now specialists, known as
psychological operations officers and civil affairs officers, whose sole purpose is to decide how to present information/propaganda
to the media and to the people. The NDAA makes it legal to broadcast propaganda within America. The bill passed in
Congress legalized covert infiltration of media organizations by government agents and created media outlets that operate as
government fronts. The National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 authorizes the dissemination of real fake news.
Prosecutors
Look To Treat Illegal Alien Crimes Different From Actual Citizen Crimes. [Scroll down] In other words, there are games being
played with the criminal justice system in order to protect illegal aliens who commit crimes above already being unlawfully present. This is
the point where the federal system should jump in and charge prosecutors and district attorneys with things like prosecutorial misconduct and
violations of immigration law, such as 8 U.S. 1324, providing shelter to an illegal alien.
Gangster
government revisited. Michael Barone dubbed the Obama administration's casual attitude toward fundamental legal
niceties "gangster government." Based on recently unsealed documents in the shareholder litigation over the government's
appropriation of the profits of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, New York Times business columnist Gretchen Morgenson provides one
more striking case study: [...]
America's
Long March toward a Secular Socialist Democracy. Property rights are the bedrock of the American political
system; without that foundation, there is no freedom. The Founders held that property rights encompass not just
physical property but also one's life, labor and livelihood, as individuals own their own lives; therefore, they must own the
products of that life that can be traded in free exchange with others. They further believed that the primary role of
government is to guarantee and protect these property rights, and further, that these property rights are natural, or God
given rights. [...] Nonetheless, since the 1930's the Progressives have been extraordinarily successful in gradually
transforming the country into what the Founders feared: a nation dominated by an all-powerful central government
running roughshod over man's inalienable rights.
No, really —
guns for we but not for thee. Hey, remember two weeks ago when congressional bodies were hitting the ground,
and some guy named Loudermilk rushed to a microphone and said congressvermin should pass a law giving them the privilege of
going armed anywhere they wanted? [...] Introducing H.R. 2940, The Congressional Self-Defense Act, "To allow Members of
Congress to carry a concealed firearm anywhere in the United States, with certain exceptions."
Code
of Federal Regulations: 30 Miles of Paper. The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) contains 180,000 pages, Business
Insider reported on June 26. "On standard paper, these pages would be about sixty feet tall if stacked,"
Business Insider contributor Nathan Bryant writes. "That is roughly equivalent to the height of a six-story
building. If those same pages were laid end-on-end, they would be over thirty miles long," he added. That's not
just a problem for printers, it's a problem for people trying to make a living in the United States. The cost of
compliance with these federal regulations is roughly $2 trillion a year, according to separate reports published by
the National Association of Manufacturers and the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
Robert
Mueller Adopts Stalinist Tactics. Yes, Virginia, this is a witch hunt. Robert Mueller III was appointed
special counsel after his friend, the vindictive James Comey, committed a federal crime by leaking a memo which was a
government record to the press. Mueller has picked staff and prosecutors as if he were stocking Hillary Clinton's
Department of Justice. He has picked a bevy of Clinton donors, an attorney who worked for the Clinton Foundation, a
former Watergate assistant prosecutor, and even a senior adviser to Eric Holder.
Trump
Russia probe gets special counsel but not Hillary, not IRS? Time to investigate the investigators. The American
people want justice to be blind. They want equal justice and equal protection for everyone. But Mr. Comey's
actions continue to call his impartiality, and the impartiality of the Holder and Lynch Justice departments, into question. [...]
Throughout 2015 and 2016 there were calls from Congress for a special counsel in the Clinton email scandal. Again the
Justice Department refused, even after it was revealed that Attorney General Loretta Lynch met privately with Bill Clinton less
than a week before the FBI interviewed Hillary Clinton. No special counsel was established, even after some unusual Justice
Department immunity deals were revealed, including those designed to protect Secretary Clinton's chief of staff Cheryl Mills, and
Bryan Pagliano, who set up the email server in the first place. This is the type of unequal justice that Americans
despise. No special counsel in the IRS targeting investigation. No special counsel for the Clinton email investigation.
But if it's about protecting Mr. Comey's reputation and hurting President Trump, then of course there has to be a special counsel.
A
License to Mow Lawns? Occupational Licensure and Liberty. If teenagers in Gardendale, Alabama, want to earn money this summer mowing
lawns, they'll need to comply with a city ordinance requiring them to get a lawn mowing license, permission that will cost $110. [...] How did we come
to a place where the powers that be can demand people apply for permission to earn a living? Is occupational licensure not a contemporary cousin
to the Stamp Act that sparked a revolution?
Americans
Learning to Live with Treason. [Scroll down] • Benghazi — Obama and his administration to the
American people that a video caused the horrific massacre. President and allies openly engage in cover-up. • FBI
investigation on Hillary Clinton — Comey announces Hillary's guilty on all counts, then the judgment, and she walks. A two-tier justice
system; Hillary's above the law. • CNN caught giving to Hillary Clinton. Democrats rig debates.
Democrats cheat Bernie Sanders out of the nomination. Democrats rig elections. These are just a few of the unacceptable
transgressions by our corrupt leaders. Each time, outraged conservatives demand that the perpetrators be brought to justice.
Each time, the press gaslights the American people with a media blackout, acts as though the incident never happened. Each time,
the cabal rides out the news cycle until the story fades, and everyone's home free.
Alabama
man jailed for a decade without trial awaits decision from judge. An Alabama man who has been jailed on a
murder charge for the last 10 years without a trial could soon learn his fate. Houston County Circuit Judge Kevin
Moulton heard arguments in a case involving Kharon Davis on Tuesday [6/6/2017] in Dothan. Davis was arrested and charged for
the murder of Pete Reaves in June 2007 at an apartment in Dothan, the Dothan Eagle reported. Davis' attorney Thomas Goggans
argued his case should be dismissed because he was previously represented by a lawyer with a possible conflict of interest in the
case. His previous attorney, Ben Meredith, had a son who was going to testify as a witness for the prosecution.
Obama's
regulations in 2016 to drain economy by $2 trillion. The Obama administration issued a record number of new
regulations on its way out the door in 2016, leaving an administrative state that saps the economy of nearly $2 trillion a
year, according to a new report being released Wednesday [5/31/2017]. The government itself spent $63 billion in 2016
to administer and enforce all of its own regulations, the Competitive Enterprise Institute said.
Vermont DMV Caught
Using Illegal Facial Recognition Program. The Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles has been caught using facial
recognition software — despite a state law preventing it. Documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties
Union of Vermont describe such a program, which uses software to compare the DMV's database of names and driver's license photos
with information with state and federal law enforcement. Vermont state law, however, specifically states that "The Department
of Motor Vehicles shall not implement any procedures or processes... that involve the use of biometric identifiers."
Republicans Go to Jail,
Democrats Run Free. Americans have lost faith in government because, frankly, had private citizens committed
crimes remotely similar to those perpetrated by the Clintons, Abedin, Holder, Lerner, Rice, and the rest of these crooks,
they would be making license plates. Unfortunately, Republican ineptness has contributed to this excruciating
disappointment. This helps explain why so many Americans believe the elite operate with a rule book to which regular
folks have zero access.
The News Is Propaganda.
Non-stop distractions are deliberately used by those in power as instruments of policy for the purpose of preventing people from paying
attention to reality. Propaganda is used by those in power to manipulate language, thought, and opinion in a way that causes the
progression from thought to action artificially. When the public is reduced to a state where people no longer care about the
truth and are unaware of what that truth even is, propaganda takes hold and shows them what to do. [...] Under the conditions in
which we find ourselves living crisis to crisis, there can be no thought as the steady stream of propaganda is fed to us in the form
of "news" that never strays from a certain narrative.
Congress'
secret police. After the arrest and conviction of a woman for laughing during Attorney General Jeff Sessions
confirmation hearing, one might be curious to see the incident report filed by the police. Unfortunately, the arresting
agency, the United States Capitol Police (USCP), is a "legislative branch entity," and therefore not subject to FOIA.
Widow
can sue over NASA's sting operation on her. A 75-year-old widow in tough financial straits reached out to NASA
about selling a speck of moon rock her late husband had given her. Joann Davis then became the target of a sting
operation at a Denny's that a federal appeals court suggested Thursday was outrageous overkill. The lead agent
"organized a sting operation involving six armed officers to forcibly seize a Lucite paperweight containing a moon rock the
size of a rice grain from an elderly grandmother," wrote Judge Sidney Thomas of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in the
decision allowing Davis to sue, per the Los Angeles Times. [...] Agents also forcibly restrained her second husband, who had
accompanied her to the supposed sale. Davis' first husband, Robert, worked as an Apollo 11 engineer, and he saved a
paperweight with moon material and another with a bit of the heat shield.
Man
Fined $500 for Crime of Writing 'I Am An Engineer' in an Email to the Government. An electronics engineer says
he found a flaw in traffic lights. The Oregon engineering board fined him for it.
When
the feds won't give up information the public owns. There's no better example of our broken system than the
partial Freedom of Information (FOI) response I just got. It's from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
regarding an Obamacare FOI request I made several years ago when I was at CBS News and investigating the failed launch and
serious security risks surrounding the Affordable Care Act national website. A couple of points: In 2013, I asked
for simple public information regarding the website, but the government improperly refused to provide it. I filed a FOI
request, which requires the government to process and provide the material within about 20 days. The government didn't
provide any of the material in the lawful time frame, which, unfortunately, is currently the typical response from federal agencies
in response to FOI requests. I eventually filed a FOI lawsuit with the help of Judicial Watch. The government spent
your tax dollars defending the lawsuit.
We're
down to one branch of government. How did we reach the place where nobody knows what the "law of the land" is until the
Supreme Court rules? How did the Supreme Court acquire so much blatantly unconstitutional and immoral power? The answer is
easy: the Court stole it.
A
Case of 21,587 Crimes. In the 1990s, Dr. Ralph Erdmann, a highly paid pathologist working for Lubbock County, Texas, ran into a
spot of trouble: At one point he had misplaced a human head, and in one autopsy report he duly recorded the condition of the spleen of a
man who did not have one. He kept blood samples in his home refrigerator, next to the mustard. He was eventually convicted of a
raft of felonies involving evidence tampering and perjury. Local lawyers insisted that he was cooperating with the district attorney
and providing whatever evidence was needed to produce a conviction. His tainted evidence helped produce convictions in at least
20 capital murder cases. Dookhan received a sentence of three to five years and was shortly thereafter paroled.
White
House sidewalk to be closed to public permanently. The U.S. Secret Service said it would end public access to a
sidewalk along the south fence of the White House beginning on Wednesday night [4/19/2017].
Congressman
Says Corruption in Washington Is 'Worse Than You Think'. Corruption on Capitol Hill is "worse than you think,"
Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., insists. "When you first get here, you think that you are in some sort of fairy-tale
novel," Buck said. "They wine and dine you and they show you just exactly what it's like if you play the game.
It's a wonderful life." Things quickly change, however, if "you don't play the game." "If you don't play the game ...
it becomes a much less conformable existence here," Buck said.
A Century of Political Surveillance and Repression.
Whether protesting the march to war, federal policy on AIDS research, civil rights violations, or simply enjoying the Nevada
desert at a "Burning Man" gathering, the common theme that emerges is that simply publicly expressing strong political views
that run counter to the prevailing government political paradigm is often enough to trigger federal government surveillance.
In
New York, Big Brother Is Watching Your Free Speech. When free speech threatens government power, government has
a tendency to get curious about the identity and funding of dissenting speakers. This was true in the civil-rights era,
when the state of Alabama tried to force the NAACP to divulge its membership lists. It was true during the Obama
administration, when the IRS targeted the Tea Party for illegal scrutiny not merely by asking in some cases for donor lists
but also by inquiring about the political activities of family members of tea-party leaders and the login information of
tea-party websites. And it was certainly true in the state of Wisconsin, when law enforcement used terrifying dawn and
pre-dawn raids to gather information about First Amendment-protected issue advocacy about labor-union reform. But why
threaten to batter down a door when you can just pass a law that batters away at the Constitution? That's the state of
New York's approach, and it's now facing one of the more important First Amendment challenges that you've likely never heard of.
700
Attorneys Spied On in One Prison, Investigator Finds. A court-appointed investigator has found that the United
States Attorney's Office for Kansas is in possession of hundreds of phone and video recordings of communications between
attorneys and their clients, inmates at a privately run prison facility in Leavenworth. At least 700 attorneys are
believed to have been recorded without their knowledge, the investigator's report submitted to a federal court said.
Last week Special Master David Cohen asked to expand his probe to determine whether prosecutors regularly listened to and
compiled attorney-client conversations. Already, 227 phone call recordings and at least 30 videos of attorney-client
meetings have been discovered in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Kansas City.
Thanks
to Trump, Pruitt, Gorsuch, and Goodlatte, the Constitution Is Back. America has begun the process of reclaiming the
Constitution. This week, the Senate is taking up the confirmation Judge Neil Gorsuch, one of many Trump nominees known for
his dedication to constitutional government. This follows the Senate confirmation of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt
as head of the EPA — a federal agency he has sued not once, not twice, but fourteen times. Pruitt's appointment
could not come at a better time. During the past eight years, the Obama administration has passed well over 25,000
regulations. These regulations cost taxpayers a whopping $890 billion, or about $15,000 a household. And
of that $890 billion, the EPA is responsible for $344 billion — more than any other agency. This kind of
power goes directly against the framers' original intent.
Feds
knew blizzard forecast was exaggerated — but didn't want to confuse us. Fears of a massive blizzard
led officials to close city public schools and for above-ground train service to be stopped — but in the end, only
about 7 inches fell in Central Park. After announcing that snow could reach record levels in the city, NWS meteorologists
in New York and other Northeast cities held a conference call Monday afternoon [3/13/2017] about computer models that dramatically
cut predicted totals. But they decided to continue forecasting deep snow, claiming that they didn't change their forecast for
fear people would mistakenly think the storm was no longer dangerous.
The Editor says...
The situation above demonstrates the state of the art in meteorology: Snowfall cannot be accurately predicted a few days in advance, even
with the fastest computers and best software in the world. Tornados can't be forecast at all, and the prediction of earthquakes and volcanic
eruptions is just as uncertain. But these are the same people who are absolutely sure that by January 1, 2100, the average
worldwide temperature will be two degrees higher than it is today.
Gorsuch
Understands How Bureaucratic Bullies Harm First Amendment Rights. One of the major threats to free speech today
is not censorship. It's harassment. Here's how it works. People join or give money to groups that support
causes they believe in. Those groups attract the ire of government officials when they criticize them or take a
position they oppose. Unable to ban the group from speaking, an angry bureaucrat does the next best thing: launch an
investigation into how the group operates and who supports it. The best part for the government? It doesn't matter
how the investigation turns out or if no charges are ever pressed. The investigation ties up the group's resources
and scares away supporters. The process is the punishment for speaking.
A Fair
and Legal Replacement for DACA. President Obama's DACA, issued in 2012 via memorandum, was a patently lawless
use of executive power. After Congress (again) decided not to pass the DREAM Act, granting legal status to illegal
immigrants who came here as children, the president abused his "pen and phone" to impose the law's provisions unilaterally.
The administration risibly claimed that this was an exercise of "prosecutorial discretion," implying that the government would be
evaluating applications for deferred status on a case-by-case basis. Unsurprisingly, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
officials have reported otherwise; in fact, anyone who appears to be under the maximum deferral age — that is, any
illegal immigrant who appears younger than 35 years old — is simply presumed to be eligible for DACA. Under
the policy, about 750,000 illegal aliens have been granted not only renewable, two-year deportation stays, but also work permits,
Social Security numbers, access to the EITC welfare program, and driver's licenses. Functionally, more than 2 million
have been shielded from deportation for nearly five years.
Judge:
If Obama Wiretapped Trump, It Would 'Destroy Whatever Legacy' He Has. Judge Andrew Napolitano said Barack Obama's alleged
wiretapping of Trump Tower is technically legal but it would destroy whatever legacy the former president has if true. The Fox News
senior judicial analyst was a guest Tuesday [3/7/2017] on "Fox & Friends" discussing whether the former administration would face legal
trouble if the wiretapping is confirmed. The judge said Obama had the power to legally order a wiretap, saying it's directly in the
FISA statute that "the president of the United States on his own may conduct surveillance or order surveillance of any person in the
United States upon the filing of a certification with the attorney general."
U.S.
Gives Soros Groups Millions to Destabilize Macedonia's Conservative Govt. The U.S. government has quietly
spent millions of taxpayer dollars to destabilize the democratically elected, center-right government in Macedonia by
colluding with leftwing billionaire philanthropist George Soros, records obtained by Judicial Watch show. Barack
Obama's U.S. Ambassador to Macedonia, Jess L. Baily, has worked behind the scenes with Soros' Open Society Foundation
to funnel large sums of American dollars for the cause, constituting an interference of the U.S. Ambassador in domestic
political affairs in violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Tired
of Everything Being Politicized? There's One Simple Solution. The problem with Big Government is that,
when you have a hammer, every problem begins to look like a nail. Likewise, the answer to all issues of life in an
over-governed society becomes one for public policy and, eventually, national debate to settle it out. Pretty soon,
the engines that make up our daily lives — the ones that ought to be filled by family and community
institutions — become the purview of the state.
This Indiana
Town Wants to Fine a Community Out of Existence on Behalf of Private Developers. Members of a small, low-income
community in Indiana are discovering that state-level protections that make it hard for cities to seize their property may
not be enough. When city leaders decide to get into bed with private developers, there are all sorts of ways for
cronyism to threaten the property rights of owners. When we imagine how a city or town seizes private property from
citizens in order to hand it over to developers for special projects, we often think about eminent domain. Governments
can force citizens to sell them their property (often for much less than it's worth on the market). While eminent domain was
supposed to be used solely for public works projects (roads, schools, et cetera), the infamous Kelo v. City of New
London Supreme Court decision set a legal precedent allowing governments to use it to hand over property to private
developers for big projects. Some states that objected to that decision passed new laws to restrict how eminent domain
may be used within their borders. Indiana was one of them.
The
Ninth Circuit's Power Grab. A federal judge in Seattle, James Robart, issued a temporary restraining order against the travel ban at the
behest of two states, Washington and Minnesota, run by Democratic governors. Now, the Ninth Circuit has upheld this single, unelected jurist's
usurpation of the power to make American national-security policy. According to the three-judge panel, even illegal aliens, to say nothing of
aliens holding non-immigrant visas or permanent-resident status, have due-process rights against government actions to protect Americans from foreign
threats. Therefore, the president and Congress (i.e., the branches of government constitutionally responsible for national security) may not
take such actions unless and until the judiciary (the branch with no such responsibility) has approved those actions. That aliens are not
citizens and have no constitutional right to come to the United States is apparently superseded by their newfangled "right" to be welcomed into
the United States courts. And even if they are not here already, even if they remain in the far reaches of the globe, this alien "right" may
be asserted by state governments.
Troops
Await Deployment Orders from Ninth Circuit. Apart from the unremitting attacks on Republicans by paid mobs and
Democratic congressmen desperate to help the base forget they lost big time and will continue to do so in 2018, the big news
this week has to be the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granting itself the right to dictate foreign policy despite the clear
words of the Constitution and federal law granting the president the absolute right to preclude entry to any alien he thinks
poses a threat to national security. Following a nonsensical decision by federal court Judge James Robart in Washington
state staying the suspension of entry from seven countries, the administration sought to overturn it — the most popular
Trump executive order — in the Ninth Circuit, the largest and most frequently overturned federal Circuit Court.
Court
ends constitutional government by blocking Trump. The 228-year experiment with a Constitutional Republic took
another step closer to ending today in a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals courtroom when a panel of three judges upheld a
district court's decision that the president of the United States and Congress cannot control our borders. So much for
the idea that elections have consequences. [...] he judges involved in this should be impeached for exceeding their
authority. There is no way every single district judge in America has the power or authority to make a policy decision
affecting the national security of 320 million Americans. The Supreme Court should make that perfectly clear.
Short
Circuit: Bill Aims to Deep-Six 9th. How big is the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals? The
San-Francisco-based circuit is so big that it represents nine states, including Nevada, 20 percent of the U.S.
population and 40 percent of the nation's land mass. It's so big that Congress has looked at bills to split
the circuit since 1941, and it's so big that none of those measures have succeeded.
U.S.
judge who stayed President Trump's immigration order abused his judicial power. I just read the ruling of U.S.
District Judge James Robart blocking a sitting American president's ability to impose temporary rules limiting the entry of
migrants seeking access to the United States so that the existing programs are properly evaluated and modified, as necessary,
for reasons of national security. Can you spell "forum shopping" for a favorable judge? Imagine the attorney
general of the state of Washington being able to strategically pick a judge who allows his personal preferences to override
his responsibility to respect the law and apply it properly rather than acting as an independent arbiter with the duty to
respect and follow the law.
President
Obama Declares Record 26th, 27th National Monuments. Using authority granted the President under the 1906 Antiquities Act, Obama created
the 1.35 million acre Bears Ears National Monument in Utah and the 300,000 acre Gold Butte National Monument in Northern Nevada. This action
brings the number of national monuments created or expanded by President Obama to 27, more than any other president in history. A national monument
designation prevents a variety of uses on the land including energy development, mining, and sometimes fishing and hunting.
Oath,
Shmoath. I've long argued that the only impeachable offense committed by George W. Bush was when he signed
McCain-Feingold into law while admitting that he thought parts of it were unconstitutional. The president takes an oath
to protect the Constitution every bit as binding as the one the Supreme Court Justices take. If you're president or a
member of Congress it is a violation of your oath to green-light an unconstitutional act, whether or not you think the
Supreme Court will fix it.
Judge
Newman Turns Slager Trial into Kangaroo Court — Verdict Now Irrelevant. The afternoon story began
with the announcement the jury in the Officer Michael Slager trial was hopelessly deadlocked. Previously the State of
South Carolina presented two options for verdict consideration, Murder or Voluntary Manslaughter. The voluntary
manslaughter option (lesser charges) was added AFTER the trial phase was concluded and the defense presented, then rested,
its case. The reason for the lesser charge was transparent to all who knew and followed the case closely, there was
virtually no way for a jury to convict on just the original charge of murder, hence the lesser included. Adding
the lesser charge option after trial testimony was yet again more evidence of a manipulative prosecution.
Obama
sets new record for regulations, 527 pages in just one day. President Obama has just set a new record for rules
and regulations, his administration spitting out 527 pages worth in just one day, as he races to put his fingerprint on
virtually every corner of American life and business. According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the administration
has just shattered the old record for pages of regulations and rules published by the in-house journal, the Federal Register.
At 81,640 total pages for 2016, it ranks first and 235 pages more than all of those published in 2010, the previous record.
The
Head of DOJ's Civil Rights Division Is Violating Federal Law and Her Actions May Be Void. Vanita Gupta, the
acting head of the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, apparently has been working in violation of federal law
for more than a year and a half. That may render all of the official actions she has taken during that period —
lawsuits, demand letters, hires, you name it — "void" and of no effect. To deter presidents from trying to get
around the Senate's constitutional "advise and consent" role in executive branch appointments, Congress passed the Federal
Vacancies Reform Act in 1998. A key section of the law sets restrictions and time limitations on how long someone can
remain as the "acting" official in a position that must be confirmed by the Senate.
House
Republicans to Obama officials: Slip new regulations through and you could be punished. Newly empowered
House Republicans on Tuesday laid down the gauntlet to the outgoing Obama administration: Don't finalize any pending
rules and regulations you think you can slip through before you leave office. In a letter to hundreds of Cabinet
secretaries, commissioners and other heads of federal offices and agencies signed by 22 Republican leaders, the lawmakers
noted that President Obama has been generous in his use of executive orders to set policy. And they issued a
threat: Ignore us and we will give your agency extra scrutiny.
The Persecution of Hank Greenberg.
Earlier this month in New York City, a 91-year-old man who fought on Normandy beach during World War II and later fought in
the Korean War was dragged into a courtroom and drilled with questions for five days by a team of government-paid
prosecutors. There are no witnesses to testify against him, and no claim of damages. The government's ultimate
objective is to bar the man from working in the securities industry, though it also hopes to force him to forfeit bonuses
that he earned nearly two decades ago. The case has been in the works for 11 years. Initially nine charges
were filed, but now only two remain. The trial is expected to last into next year. None of this seems to make
any sense — until you learn that it is all Eliot Spitzer's doing.
Paying the Price for
Calling Obama a Commie. Call President Barack Obama a communist in Nebraska and you could pay a hefty
price. Just ask Robert Bennie Jr., a successful financial adviser and former leader of the tea party in the state
capital of Lincoln. Bennie and the employer that eventually fired him were hounded and harassed by the Nebraska
Department of Banking and Finance for months, in large part due to Bennie's political views, according to his
attorneys. And while a U.S. appeals court agreed with a lower court that the regulators "targeted Bennie partly in
retaliation for his constitutionally protected political speech," the agency's harassing activities did not rise to a First
Amendment violation — to "deter someone of ordinary firmness from continuing to speak."
FBI
Leaks Reveal Disgust With Politicization of Agency and DOJ. CTH readers will remember how far we researched the
transparent politicization of criminal cases as they related to the DOJ (Eric Holder and Tom Perez) in the Zimmerman
trial. Specifically how entities within the DOJ/FBI colluded with State Attorney Angela Corey about extracting then
hiding Trayvon Martin's phone metadata. That level of coordinated DOJ/FBI corruption only worsened with Darren Wilson
(Ferguson) and beyond. The same manipulative tentacles became more evident with the IRS targeting scandal and later the
email investigation into Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In essence, the bottom line is: the politicization
and weaponization of government has been going on for more than just a few years.
Pastor Facing
$100 a Day Fines for Helping Homeless Women and Children on His Own Church's Property. Proving once again that
the state has no interest in helping people, the state of Delaware is attacking a pastor who would dare attempt to help the
homeless. Pastor Aaron Appling of Victory Church West in Dover is being threatened with a $100 per day fine by county
officials for allowing a 21-year-old homeless woman to live in an RV in the back of the church property. Because
Appling didn't go through the right channels of extortion and get his own property approved by the government to do with it
what he wishes, officials are promising to extort him.
Obama:
Country Can't Function With Only Eight Supreme Court Justices. Article III of the Constitution lists nine classes of cases within the jurisdiction of
the federal judiciary, including the Supreme Court. Among those nine powers, one does not find "amending the Constitution," or "voiding the will of the people,"
or "forcing states to accept social attitudes inconsistent with their citizens," or anything even close to amending the Constitution via judicial decision.
Article V of the Constitution sets out the amendment procedure and "whatever the Supreme Court says" is not part of the constitutionally mandated process!
Thomas Jefferson had something to say in the matter. In 1804, he wrote that giving the Supreme Court power to declare as unconstitutonal acts of the legislature
or executive "would make the judiciary a despotic branch." He noted that "nothing in the Constitution" gives the Supreme Court that right.
FBI
Colluded with Democrats, Team Clinton on Email 'Prosecution'. The clueless Republicans — like most Americans —
simply cannot bring themselves to realize what sort of government we are now living under. [...] The Obama administration has corrupted and
weaponized the major enforcement agencies of the federal government, including the IRS and the FBI, and now is reaching down to the local level
in order to bring municipal police forces under Washington's control.
School
orders 5-hour psych exam for student after he hands in anti-gun control presentation. Manville High School
senior Frank Harvey school officials are driving him out over an anti-gun control class presentation he received an "A" on
last year. Harvey was suspended Tuesday [9/27/2016] and ordered to undergo a five-hour psychological exam before he can
return after he left a thumb drive in the school library that contained an anti-gun control presentation he gave as an
assignment in April, NJ.com reports. Someone found the thumb drive and turned it over to school officials, who then
called police to interrogate the student.
Ex-O.C.
court clerk accused of fixing hundreds of criminal and traffic cases for bribes. A dozen men have been charged
in a massive bribery scheme allegedly run by an Orange County court clerk accused of forging records in hundreds of cases to
get drunk drivers and other violators off with little or no punishment. [...] At the center of the case is Jose Lopez Jr., a
former clerk in Orange County Superior Court who is accused of resolving hundreds of cases by entering information into the
court's computer system to make it appear as if defendants had served jail time, been convicted of less serious charges and
paid fines when they had not.
Inmates
say prison made them watch Hillary Clinton's speech, blacked out Donald Trump's. Federal convicts told a judge
they were forced to watch Hillary Clinton's convention speech at the federal prison where they're being held — but
said the prison imposed a blackout on Donald Trump's speech, tuning the facility's televisions to other channels. The
felons are trying to join the federal case against President Obama's 2014 deportation amnesty, saying that Mr. Obama is
discriminating against U.S. citizens caught breaking the law by punishing them, even as he attempts to grant work permits and
taxpayer-funded benefits to illegal immigrants.
Patent
Office Workers Defraud Inventors Of Millions of Dollars. Reviewing and issuing patents is one of the few
responsibilities of the federal government that is actually important — which makes the revelations contained in a
new report from an inspector general all the more disturbing. The Commerce Department's IG found that hundreds of
patent examiners billed for close to 300,000 hours that they didn't work, over a span of 15 months. That cost
$18.3 million, the IG says, with the bill paid by inventors themselves who fund the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
through application fees. Plus, had these employees actually worked those hours, they could have cut the USPTO's
chronic backlog of patent reviews by 16,000.
This Is Not
Your Government. Those who reside within the borders of the United States live under a despotic rule of Supreme
Court justices, regulators, random judges, presidential decree and Fed policy. There is no politician in the land
responsive to the people. This is how Donald Trump gained the Republican nomination, because folks were fed up with
calling their congressperson seeking redress only to be sold out as soon as the votes were counted. US citizens are not
constituents in the normal vernacular, they are simply voters, you know, those folks who come around every two to four years
and validate all of the larceny that has taken place in the past two to four years.
Obama's
Indian Policy Threatens All Americans, Both Tribal and Non-tribal Citizens. Flying completely under the radar of the vast majority of Americans,
federal Indian policies of the Obama administration are subverting our constitutional order and successfully transferring vast land holdings and natural
resources to corrupt, federally controlled tribal governments. This stealth agenda is replacing the authority and obligations of the various state
governments to protect the lives, rights, property, and natural resources of their citizens by illegally and immorally transferring that authority to select
tribal governments. [...] The horrendous consequences of this political path are alarming, to say the least, not only for Americans living in the 39 states
directly affected, but for our entire country. While farmers, ranchers, and other rural citizens and small towns are the frontline targets of this
stealth agenda, it will dramatically impact all Americans.
Government
Workers Now Outnumber Manufacturing Workers by 9,932,000. Government employees in the United States outnumber
manufacturing employees by 9,932,000, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Federal,
state and local government employed 22,213,000 people in August, while the manufacturing sector employed 12,281,000. The
BLS has published seasonally-adjusted month-by-month employment data for both government and manufacturing going back to 1939.
For half a century — from January 1939 through July 1989 — manufacturing employment always exceeded government
employment in the United States, according to these numbers.
Dallas
Judges Shred Constitution, Steal Millions. Jeff Baron is a Dallas resident and U.S. citizen who was put into
"virtual slavery" by U.S. District Court Judge Royal Furgeson after Baron settled an otherwise ordinary contract dispute in
his court. Although Baron was never accused of any crime and had just resolved the dispute in Furgeson's court,
Furgeson seized the sum total of Baron's personal property and possessions, including his home and car, and suspended nearly
all of his civil rights, including his right to be represented by counsel, right to own property, right to earn income, and
right to travel. Four years later, Baron was still in civil lockdown — even after the U.S. Fifth Circuit
Court of Appeals reversed the unlawful rulings and enjoined any further liquidation of Baron's property.
'Cajun
Navy' Saves Thousands After LA Floods, Now Govt. Wants to Introduce Legislation Around Citizen Heroes. No
good deed goes unpunished. That's especially true when the government finds out about it. The 'Cajun Navy' has
rescued upwards of thousands of people after the floods ravaged Louisiana, but now Uncle Sam wants to introduce "legislation
around future actions by citizen heroes."
A
Louisiana Republican wants Good Samaritans to pay up before helping flood victims. Louisiana State
Representative Jonathan Perry has proposed a bill that could require training and a fee before volunteers can get past law
enforcement cordons around dangerous areas, WWL-TV reports. Perry argues that untrained volunteers pose a liability to
the state. But that almost immediately sparked resistance from the Cajun Navy.
The Editor says...
Liberals think you're too stupid to watch out for snakes and submerged hazards. Statists abhor private-sector problem-solvers because they think
the government should be in charge of (and take credit for) everything. Self-important officials and politicians seem to believe that only those
with badges and permits are capable of helping their neighbors. This licensing of post-disaster volunteers has never been necessary before.
This is all about fees and licenses, which means it's all about control and taxes, not public safety.
Carbon
Cost Ruling Favors Environment over Citizens. On Monday [8/8/2016], the Chicago-based 7th Circuit U.S. Court of
Appeals unanimously rejected an industry-backed request to overturn a 2014 Department of Energy (DOE) regulation that set
efficiency standards for refrigerators. In doing so, the court decided that the DOE has the authority to use SCC as
part of its overall cost-benefit analysis when considering environmental regulations. This is the first time a court
has weighed the legality of carbon accounting, which many congressional Republicans, manufacturers and fossil fuel interests
oppose as inaccurate and unreliable. But the court sided with the DOE and environmental groups that believe the social
costs of carbon emissions can, and should, be assessed on an economic scale.
What's
Wrong With the Government's Mandating of Energy Efficiency. The Obama administration's Department of Energy has
churned through a list of energy efficiency regulations before the next administration. Just since June, the DOE has
set or initiated standards for dehumidifiers, ceiling fans, battery chargers, and wine coolers. [...] Take a look around your
kitchen. Many of the appliances are also regulated by the federal government, from the oven and refrigerator, down to
the standby light on the microwave. Step outside to other rooms and even outdoors. TVs, showers, air conditioners
and heaters, washers and dryers, backyard swimming pools, toilets — these are just some of the other things
regulated by the federal government.
Government Pulls Water
Supply of Dakota Protestors Despite Sweltering Heat. Growing in number and spirit, the Standing Rock Sioux
protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline is swiftly gaining strength ahead of a federal hearing on the controversial
project. Support has spread across the country, and thousands have descended on the peaceful "prayer camps" in recent
days, prompting state officials on Monday to remove the demonstrators' drinking water supply. North Dakota homeland
security director Greg Wilz ordered the removal of state-owned trailers and water tanks from the protest encampment, despite
the sweltering heat, because of alleged disorderly conduct, according to the Bismarck Tribune, including reports of
laser pointers aimed at surveillance aircraft.
Seattle
Warrantless Garbage Searches Unconstitutional. King County Judge Beth Andrus ruled Seattle's warrantless
searches of garbage violate Washington State's constitution, banning Seattle sanitation workers from looking in residents'
trash for possible violations of the city's composting law. The ruling in Bonesteel, et al. v. City of
Seattle shows states are able to grant rights beyond those guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. It was handed down
on April 27. According to the Washington State Constitution, "No person shall be disturbed in his private affairs,
or his home invaded, without authority of law." "By authorizing garbage collectors to pry through people's garbage
without a warrant, the city has promoted a policy of massive and persistent snooping," said Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF)
attorney Ethan Blevins in a statement. Blevins was one of the PLF lawyers who represented the eight plaintiffs.
With
New Navajo Nation Lawsuit, EPA Faces More Pressure Over Gold King Mine Spill. One year has passed since the
Environmental Protection Agency caused a discharge of 3 million gallons of toxic water into the Animas River, and
no one has been held accountable, although private parties have been criminally prosecuted under similar circumstances
in the past. Now, three entities' actions might change the resulting narrative that there are two sets of rules, one
for people in the private sector, and another for employees of the federal government.
277,000:
Fed Regulators Have More Than Quadrupled Since 1960. Want to work in a field that has more than quadrupled in
size since 1960? Consider being a regulator for the federal government. Even during the last recession, the regulatory
agencies were hiring. In 2015, the U.S. government employed more than 277,000 regulators. To put that number in
perspective, it's 50,000 more workers than General Motors Co. employs throughout the entire world. We've all heard of
the regulatory agencies that constitute the "fourth branch" of government. It has cost our economy over $100 billion
during the Obama administration. But it wasn't always like this. We haven't always lived in a world where unelected
bureaucrats could fine a man $55,000 for taking photos of his friend's art project.
DOJ
Bills JW $50k to Search for Nonexistent Records about Anti-Terrorism Coalition Launched by AG Loretta Lynch. Specifically, Judicial Watch
asked for legal opinions and analysis prepared by the DOJ relating to the U.S. involvement in the program, documents that form the foundation for the
decision for the country to participate in SCN [Strong Cities Network], all international agreements and related records involving the commitment of
U.S. resources or personnel to SCN and records of communication between officials in the Office of the Attorney General relating to the initiative.
The request reminds the agency that, under the OPEN Government Act, Judicial Watch is entitled to a complete waiver of search and duplication fees if
records aren't produced within 20 business days. On July 29, 2016, long after the deadline to produce the records, the DOJ sent Judicial
Watch a $50,000 invoice for search fees, though not a single file was produced.
Was This
Wartime Technology Really Deployed Against Journalists Inside the DNC? Technology developed to jam cellphones
during the Iraq War may be getting deployed against journalists reporting on protests against the political establishment in
the United States. While police and government surveillance of protests, including monitoring of cellphone use, is
well-documented, efforts to block signals at protests remains an oft-repeated, but never proven, rumor. It may be
impossible to definitively prove that authorities are using cellphone "jamming" technology, but journalists working with both
mainstream and independent media reported unusual difficulties accessing the internet during recent protests at the gates of
the Democratic National Convention, consistent with the effects this very real technology could have. During the
protests outside the DNC, which I covered for MintPress News, I experienced this personally, with my internet connection
behaving suspiciously near the convention's security fences and entrance gates, often abruptly blocking my tweets and other
communication. The same was true for every other journalist I spoke with who covered the protests.
Aristocracy In America.
An increasing number of Americans do not know history. The result is the continued expansion of an elite class for whom
the law does not apply. We no longer recognize that there is a cycle from tyranny to revolution (or invasion), to
liberty, to oligarchy and back again. Our founders understood this and wrote the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights
to counter it. Yet knowledge of only 20th century history is enough to see the pattern clearly. Since the
writings of Karl Marx, aristocracy has flourished by camouflaging itself in the cloak of equality. For example, an
increasing number of Americans fail to recognize the inherent hypocrisy of politicians surrounded by taxpayer-funded, armed
security while working diligently on removing the right of the citizenry to defend itself in the same way.
Donald
Trump Is Right About One Thing: Our Experts Know Nothing. Americans are governed by politicians who see
fit to reimagine entire sectors of our economy and, indeed, our lives despite having little, if any, experience in the areas
of life they seek to reform wholesale. This means Americans, seeing the failures of government from Obamacare to the
Veterans Affairs, from the Environmental Protection Agency dumping toxic materials into a Colorado river to the Dodd-Frank
regulations strangling local community banks, have had just about enough of their credentialed but utterly inexperienced
supposed betters reordering their lives and livelihoods. Think about it: how many practicing physicians helped
design and implement Obamacare? How many doctors did the Obama administration consult in imposing its electronic
medical records requirements on physicians?
Engineered
Chaos And Fear The New Norm In America As Many Assume The "Reality" Of Staged Events. There was a time when
there was actually a sense of normality all around us and there was a sense of justice and accountability at the government
level even if it was mostly the perception of it. [...] There was even a time when you could comfortably plan on traveling pretty
much anywhere in the world, especially here in the United States for business or pleasure without having to deal with the prospect
of "terrorism" or another psyop mass shooting, terror truck drivers, snipers or lockdowns. You also didn't have to worry
about a violent police state, checkpoints, surveillance cameras, killer robots, government spying and 24/7 fear, death and
destruction being put out by the mainstream media news. There was a sense of order, in other words, that many of us still
remember and we remember exactly what it felt like. Obviously you can't miss something or yearn for the days you've never
experienced. This disconnect that the younger generation has to what some may refer to the good old days is important in
the grand scheme of things because this chaos is all they know and it is a grand example of learned helplessness. For the
first time in modern American history we have a generation that doesn't know what order, calmness and peace looks like.
Texas
man made to pay child support in New Jersey for child that isn't his. Abisai Moreno Iglesias is a 33-year-old
man from Tyler, Texas, who for almost a decade has been embroiled in the one of the weirdest child support stories you'll
ever hear. He's had thousands of dollars garnished from his wages by the state of New Jersey — all to
support a child that isn't his. And he could have had even more money taken out of his paycheck as recently as the
first week of July if it weren't for a little help from Chasing News. Mr. Iglesias was accidentally attached to a
child support case in Cumberland County, New Jersey because he has almost the same name as the father of a nine year-old girl.
You
Need 4 Different Licenses to Shine Shoes in DC. Most agree that jobs that deal directly with public health and
safety should require some sort of license to do. However, a 2015 study conducted by the White House Council of
Economic Advisers found that the share of the U.S. workforce needing a license to work increased five-fold from 1950 to
2008. In the District of Columbia, for example, someone looking to work as a shoe shiner must attain four different
licenses and pay at least $337 to get those licenses.
The
Bureaucracy — The Unaccountable Fourth Branch Of Government. In arguing for the states to ratify the
Constitution, James Madison wrote in Federalist 47, "The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive and judiciary, in
the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many ... may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny." In our time, the
regulatory state has become a form of tyranny led by bureaucrats who have wrested power from Congress and even influenced the Supreme
Court to bow to their power. This concentration of power in the regulatory state has led to outrage after outrage as unelected,
unaccountable bureaucrats act as tyrannical kings, issuing edicts that harm small businesses, restrict freedom and cost our economy
almost $2 trillion per year. This fourth branch of government exists outside of and unrestrained by the constitutional
system of checks and balances. It represents one of the greatest threats to the liberties of American citizens.
'Tens of
Thousands' Wrongly Convicted Based on Unreliable Drug Tests. ProPublica reporters Ryan Gabrielson and Topher
Sanders estimate that widely used but notoriously unreliable field tests for drugs have led to "tens of thousands" of
wrongful convictions in the United States. The tests are not admissible in court, but that does not matter much, since
the vast majority of drug cases — 90 percent or more — are resolved by plea deals. Gabrielson and
Sanders' story, which was published in The New York Times Magazine over the weekend, illustrates that point with the
case of a Louisiana woman, Amy Albritton, whose employment prospects were ruined by a felony conviction after Houston police
pulled over her car in 2010 and found a white crumb they mistakenly identified as crack cocaine. The test that was used
to incriminate Albritton involves dropping a suspected drug sample into a vial of cobalt thiocyanate, which is supposed to
turn blue in the presence of cocaine. But as Gabrielson and Sanders note, "cobalt thiocyanate also turns blue when it
is exposed to more than 80 other compounds, including methadone, certain acne medications and several common household cleaners."
Thug-ocracy. [Scroll down] The law is for the
Dirt People and it will be enforced by the Cloud People, but, the Cloud People will do as they please. There's another
way to look at it. That is, the ruling class has lost control of the reigns and they can no longer police
themselves. Hillary Clinton has no business being president. It's absurd even without the massive corruption and
criminality. Hillary's crowning achievement was marrying Bill Clinton 50 years ago. Even a deeply corrupt and
incompetent ruling class should be able to filter out the likes of Hillary Clinton. The fact that they cannot bring
themselves to flush her from the system when they have an iron clad criminal case against her is ominous. There's
another angle here. The whole "Arkanside" thing is a fun gag, but it does appear that the ruling class is playing much
tougher with one another. Judge Roberts was either blackmailed or threatened into reversing his opinion on
ObamaCare. That's incandescently obvious. FBI Director Comey's erratic performance yesterday suggests there's
more here than just a man suddenly changing his mind about law enforcement. He has prosecuted many others for these
exact same crimes. A lesson of history is that when ruling elites become unstable, they become thuggish.
America's
Actual Biggest Lawbreaker. Through the frequent and growing use of "administrative subpoenas," which are warrants issued
by federal, state and even local government officials without prior approval of judges or magistrates, the government trespasses on
papers and effects. Courts and legislatures have eliminated the "probable cause" and other Fourth Amendment standards for these
judge-less warrants, giving great deference to government trespasses. [...] Administrative subpoenas have become institutionalized
violations of the Fourth Amendment. America's biggest lawbreaker loves administrative subpoenas. Government violations
of the Constitution happen every day across the country.
The
McDonnell Case: Another Study in Criminal Law as Democratic Partisan Warfare. It's common for those
unhappy with a decision to criticize the partisanship of the judges involved, but the weakness of the case, which was evident
when it was argued in the Supreme Court (and during the trial itself), and the fact that it was reversed unanimously warrants
a raised eyebrow. It comes on the heels of the reversed prosecutions of then-Senator Ted Stevens, Governor Rick Perry,
House Majority leader Tom DeLay, the IRS war on Obama's opponents in the tea party and other conservative groups, and the
outrageous trampling the rights of those who worked for and supported Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. This case and
those matters lead to an inescapable conclusion: With the endorsement of partisan juries and/or judges, the Democratic
Party seeks to and will use the power of the prosecution to destroy Republican political leaders and anyone who supports them.
After
Air Force One Ride, Hillary Uses Official Presidential Seal For Campaign Speech. Just hours after walking free
from felony and misdemeanor charges for handling top secret, classified information in an "extremely careless" manner,
presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton boarded Air Force One with President Barack Obama and jetted off to
a campaign event in North Carolina. The trip cost taxpayers $200,000 per hour. During the event, President Obama
spoke before Clinton and used the official Presidential Seal for his remarks. When Clinton stepped up to the lectern
it wasn't taken down, but instead used by Clinton for her remarks as well.
Is True American Liberty
Gone? It saddens me to see the dedication to liberty of the founders and those who sacrificed so much being flushed down
the toilet by the people running the nation today who are only interested only in their own power and wealth. There are only a
few, barely a handful, who care about the well-being of the nation and its citizens. Barak [sic] Obama is the most blatant of
despotic wanna-be tyrants but far from the only one. The entire political party system is corrupt and evil.
What's
really behind the ongoing push for gun control? All modern governments are organized crime legitimized by the
police power of the state. There is illegal crime and there is legal crime. We tend to accept government crime
because it has made itself politically legal and politically palatable with such propaganda myths as "democracy." All
economic power, political power and religious power are vested in the state. The state manages the system backed by
police power. Police power is civil and military. The German state under Adolf Hitler was organized crime
protected by visible military power, whereas American so-called democracy is a police state without the jack boots and the
swastika. Police power in a modern "democracy" appears more benevolent because it is more subtle or more
invisible. But police power is ever present. It normally isolates and prosecutes enemies of the state, radiating
its presence through the controlled media for public obedience. This type of police state is accurately described as
benevolent totalitarianism. Sometimes, however, it misfires and rears its despotic head in actions like Waco and Ruby
Ridge. All national states have one thing in common. They want all uncontrolled arms of the people confiscated.
Federal
Judge Strikes Down Security Buffer Zone for GOP Convention. A federal judge found unconstitutional a heightened-security area
proposed to surround the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio on Thursday [6/23/2016], saying the 3.5 square mile
"event zone" unfairly restricted free speech. U.S. District Judge James Gwin stated the event zone was "unduly large," siding with
the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the suit on behalf of protesters.
A
Week in the Life of the American Police State. The following incidents constitute a typical week in the life of
the American police state. [#1] Not content with merely spying on our emails and phone calls, the NSA wants to spy on
thermostats, refrigerators, and pacemakers. [#2] Reinforcing fears about how easily surveillance technology can be abused by
government officials, local police in California are using money acquired through asset forfeiture to buy surveillance
equipment that was then used to blackmail city council members. [#3] Small-town police departments continue to militarize
their forces, acquiring military equipment such as BearCat armored vehicles and SWAT teams at an alarming rate. [#4] According
to the Government Accountability Office, the majority of people in the government's criminal face-recognition database have never
committed a crime. [...] [#7] The Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that as long as the government shows "good
faith," it can search your digital files as much as it wants. [#8] The FBI and other government agencies have been hiding
cameras in city utility poles in order to carry out warrantless, covert surveillance on Americans.
The Licensing
Disaster. When people on the right say "job-killing regulations," they usually are referring to health or
environmental or social welfare rules that may or may not be wise but which actually have — or are intended to
have — some kind of positive benefit for society at large. But a good chunk of America's occupational
licensing system — exemplified by the [New York] Times story about the animal masseuse ordered by
Arizona's veterinary board to stop practicing unless she paid a quarter million dollars for four years of veterinary
school — falls into a different category entirely. These are cartels, plain and simple, that use state
power to minimize competition and maximize rents, without any plausible justification besides self-interest.
Obama wants to starve kids in
Texas. State officials there are opposed to Obama's edict to allow students to determine which restroom or locker
room they use, based solely on how they feel about themselves. Obama says any state that does not bow to his wishes faces
a cutoff of education funding. Texas gets almost $2 billion a year from the federal government for its school breakfast
and lunch programs. Thus, over an issue affecting less than 0.01 percent of students in Texas, Obama is threatening to
take food out of the mouths and bellies of the poorest of the poor children. And it's not just kids in Texas. More than
a dozen other states are refusing to go along with Obama's edict on bathroom and locker room for so-called "transgendereds."
We're talking about millions of kids not getting breakfast and lunch as a direct result of Obama's bullying.
This
Lyft driver uses her congressman father's Honda. Users of the ride-sharing app, Lyft, were treated to more than
just a low-cost ride when they requested one specific car. Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings confirmed Tuesday [5/31/2016] he
gave his daughter, Adia, permission to use his Honda while she was a student at Howard University in Washington, D.C. But in an
effort to pay her school bills, Adia used her father's vehicle to enlist as a Lyft driver, according to a statement obtained by the
Washington Examiner.
Rep
apologizes after daughter found using congressional car tag. [Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings] said Tuesday
[5/31/2016] that a daughter who recently graduated from college has been using his Honda with a congressional plate while
working part time for a ride-sharing company to make extra money for school expenses.
Daughter
of Democrat Congressman Elijah Cummings uses his car with official plates to ferry Lyft passengers around Washington.
Thousands of drivers work part-time for Lyft to make a little bit of extra money on the side, but not many of them are congressmen
earning a $174,000 salary. So it's no wonder eyebrows were raised when Democrat Elijah Cummings' Honda — complete with
Congressional plates — was spotted picking up cab fares around Washington, DC. The black car carrying a sticker for the car
service app was spotted by eagle-eyed Lyft user Dustin Andres, who asked: 'So, which member of Congress drives Lyft in DC?'
It's
Boomtime For Regulators Under Obama, While Economy Flatlines. The economy might be tepid under President Obama,
but there is one part that has been thriving. Since Obama took office, the federal regulatory economy has never been
better, with solid growth in spending and employment. That's according to a new report that tracks how much the
government spends on federal regulatory activity. That is, how many people work at regulatory agencies, and how
much money those agencies spend. The numbers are staggering.
Congressional
Conservatives Trying to Save You From Laws They Never Passed. The vast majority of federal lawmaking is no
longer done by elected officials, and a handful of congressmen are working to change that. Wednesday morning
[5/25/2016], Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and Reps. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) and Mark Walker (R-NC) introduced the Article I
Regulatory Budget Act of 2016, which seeks to force Congress to exert more of its constitutional authority in countering
regulations imposed by the executive branch.
This
Is Not The America My Parents Immigrated To In 1957. This country is ruled by force, not law.
Governmental assassinations of US citizens. A highly militarized police with almost unlimited powers to harass,
intimidate, and brutalize with impunity. TSA groping whereby in any other setting would be considered sexual
harassment. Overseas detention, torture and assassinations carried out against anyone, including American citizens,
without due process — and without recourse if later cleared. Warrantless GPS tracking by the FBI. The IRS
targeting religious groups. Some people now actually be charged with pre-crimes. Checkpoints up to
one hundred miles inland from all our borders (including the two oceans and Gulf of Mexico) in an area stunningly known
as a "Constitution Free Zone". No Ride / No Fly lists which are extrajudicial, secret, and form a
guilty-until-proven innocent framework that subverts freedom instead of protecting it. A See Something/Say Something
program which goes beyond the already high-tech surveillance apparatus of the NSA and turns each of us into an unpaid
employee of the police state similar to what the East German Stasi did to their citizens. Web cameras and surveillance
proliferating like a wildfire, data mining, recording all your phone conversations, all your web searches, all your emails,
and all without your consent. An FDA, which has near-total food control and usually renders anything healthy as toxic,
and all that is toxic as healthy, and does insane [things] like jailing folks who buy raw milk. Literally tens of
thousands of regulations which literally invade every facet of society, whereby it has been said that almost all of us commit
three felonies per day, and every violation of these laws will be met with the full force and fury of the State which
promises fines, penalties, forfeiture of properties, or imprisonment. Does any of this even remotely resemble a
representative democracy, or does it sound more like a dictatorship?
Did
the Houston DA's Office Abuse Its Power to Get Daleiden Indictment? Did the Houston District Attorney's Office
abuse its grand-jury subpoena power in order to help Planned Parenthood not only escape an indictment, but also turn the
tables on the two undercover videographers who brought to light the abortion giant's fetal-tissue practice? According
to attorneys representing Center for Medical Progress undercover-video investigators David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt,
Houston Assistant District Attorney Sunni Mitchell engaged in prosecutorial misconduct by working closely with Josh Schaffer,
legal counsel for Planned Parenthood of the Gulf Coast, which was the target of the grand-jury investigation that resulted
instead in the indictments of the pro-life advocates.
Secret Service
punishes 41 over leak of lawmaker's data. Forty-one U.S. Secret Service employees have been disciplined over a
media leak of the personal files of a congressman who had criticized the agency's security lapses, the Department of Homeland
Security said on Thursday [5/26/2016]. Punishments ranged from a letter of reprimand to suspensions without pay for up
to 45 days, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said in a statement. One person found to have disclosed
information on Republican congressman Jason Chaffetz to the Washington Post has resigned from the service, Johnson said,
noting that privacy laws prevented disclosure of more details.
Any
American who believes in the rule of law and fair play should be afraid, very afraid, of our government right
now. [Scroll down] The problem of lawyers lying to judges is extremely serious. Our system of
litigation — lawyers present facts and argue about laws, and judges rely on the truthfulness of what the lawyers
have told them — is built on trust. Because lawyers know the facts in their cases more intimately than
judges do, judges rely on lawyers to tell them the truth. At first, these DOJ lawyers lied. Then they lied about
their lying. Then they reluctantly acknowledged that they had momentary lapses in understanding, an argument that the
court rejected because of the repeated nature of their lying. The lawyers said the programs had not begun, when in fact
they had — to a large degree.
A
Monstrous Moral Leviathan. Having grown up within a mile of the Beltway during the Cold War, the greatest fear
dominating my childhood and adolescence was that I might one day look up and see a brilliant mushroom cloud rising over DC.
At the time, it never occurred to me that the biggest threat to our nation would come not from a foreign enemy, but from
within the halls of power in our nation's capital. Our government Leviathan is very real and has grown to previously
unimaginable proportions. Its ever-increasing reach seems to know no bounds. And what was once perceived to be
Leviathan's mostly fiscal threat to the health and well-being of our nation is now a monstrous moral threat.
Leviathan's vast bureaucracies are now its foot soldiers, who have busied themselves with weaponizing executive edicts,
errant court rulings and out-of-control regulatory powers against all who disagree with our Ruling Elites never-ending
social/moral engineering experimentation.
Killing
the regulatory parasite. The successful parasite does not kill its host. But the federal regulatory
parasite is in the process of killing the golden goose upon which it feeds. Several studies from highly reputable
institutions have been released in the last number of days, all with similar alarming conclusions — namely, the
number and costs of federal regulations are growing much faster than the economy, and they are having a significant negative
impact on economic growth and job creation. From the new annual report, Ten Thousand Commandments 2016, prepared by
Clyde Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, we learn that the costs of federal regulations — nearly
$1.9 trillion — is now greater than the Internal Revenue Service collects from both personal income and corporate
taxes. "Federal regulation is a hidden tax that amounts to nearly $15,000 per U.S. household each year."
Obama
Raided $500M for Zika to Finance UN's Green Climate Fund. Last week, the Senate passed legislation to address
and prevent the spread of the Zika virus. However, the Senate failed to pay for it, and instead approved a $1.1 billion
"emergency" spending supplemental bill that is not subject to the budgetary caps that were agreed to last year. While
congressional inattention to the budget crisis is inexcusable, it is even more disturbing that the Obama administration
already has the authority to pay for a Zika response from existing agency budgets, but chose not to.
20,642
New Regulations Added in the Obama Presidency. The tide of red tape that threatens to drown U.S. consumers and
businesses surged yet again in 2015, according to a Heritage Foundation study we released on Monday [5/23/2016]. More
than $22 billion per year in new regulatory costs were imposed on Americans last year, pushing the total burden for the
Obama years to exceed $100 billion annually. That's a dollar for every star in the galaxy, or one for every second
in 32 years.
Obama
Has 3,260 Rules In The Regulatory Pipeline. The Obama administration's got more than 3,200 regulations at
various stages of completion, including 2,239 active rules agencies are working to finish before President Barack Obama
leaves office. The White House's Office of Management and Budget released its spring 2016 "Unified Agenda of Federal
Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions," which lists 3,260 regulations at various stages in the regulatory pipeline. The
vast majority of these regulations — 2,239 — are considered "active" rules, meaning regulators are
still working on them.
Obama
rushes out rules to guarantee legacy. The Obama administration is shoveling out regulations nearly one-third
faster in its final year than during the previous three — all to beat a May 23 deadline to prevent a President
Donald Trump from overturning them. A total of 195 regulations have been pushed through since Jan. 1 at an estimated
cost of $69.5 billion to the nation's businesses, according to the conservative American Action Forum. One of the most
significant — a sweeping rule that will extend overtime pay to more than 4 million people without any input from
Congress — was released Tuesday night [5/17/2016].
FTC Accused of Engaging
in 'Partisan' Defense of Clintons. The Federal Trade Commission is being accused of engaging in a partisan
defense of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their business interests after the agency refused a congressional request to
investigate the family's foundation. The agency, which is charged with ensuring consumer protection, rejected a request
to investigate the nonprofit Clinton Foundation despite "serious and well-documented" concerns from lawmakers, said Matthew
Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney who serves as executive director for the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust
(FACT), an ethics watchdog group. The FTC penned a letter to Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.) this week
rejecting a request from she and 21 members of Congress that the FTC review the nonprofit status of the Clinton
Foundation after reports raised questions about the charity's transparency and possible deception.
Resisting
Obama's Transgender Directive: A Hill to Die On. [T]he left, without remorse, appoints results-oriented,
activist judges, whom they view not as protectors of the Constitution and law but as vehicles to advance its political agenda
by any means necessary, including twisting the meaning of constitutional and statutory provisions and often inventing rights
out of whole cloth. It's why it doesn't even blink when one of its own usurps legislative authority and issues
lawless executive orders in contravention of the people's will, even while knowing he has no constitutional authority to do
so. It's why it deliberately refuses to enforce immigration laws. It's why it blackmails state governments,
through the threat of withholding funds, into doing the will of the federal government. It's why it privately applauds
the use of the IRS to target its political opponents. And it's why it stacks the Justice Department with radical
leftists whose mission to effect changes in policy supersedes its duty of ensuring the fair and impartial administration of justice.
DOJ's
Lawsuit Against North Carolina Is Abuse of Power. North Carolina has sustained unrelenting and coordinated
attacks from big business, the entertainment industry, the American Civil Liberties Union, and now the federal government
over its commonsense bathroom policies. Gov. Pat McCrory and the North Carolina Legislature have had enough of
this bullying and filed separate lawsuits against the Department of Justice Monday in the reasonable expectation that a
federal judge will order the ideologues at the Department of Justice to back off.
The use of airport security as a weapon against political opponents:
Is
the U.S. Government Now TRACKING 'Right-Wing Extremists'? It started last summer. I don't consider myself
a "right-wing extremist" — but the far-Left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) does, and the FBI uses the SPLC as
a resource. Since then, every time I fly — and I fly almost weekly — I can't check in online.
I am always directed to go to the airline counter. There — as soon as I present my identification —
the trouble starts. It generally proceeds like this: [1] The clerk types a great deal, frowns at the screen,
types some more, asks me what my middle name is, types still more, looks at me quizzically, and gets on the phone.
[2] They're very secretive about these calls, sometimes even moving to a different desk to make them. They refuse
to tell me anything about them afterward, including who they called or why. [3] The call usually takes around ten
minutes. The whole process takes fifteen or twenty minutes. Then I am checked in and allowed to go to my gate.
Let's
Don't Put On a Show. The only thing I know about Kasim Reed is that he's the mayor of Atlanta and I hate
him. If you've had the experience of going through the Atlanta airport recently, you'll be familiar with the deeply
grating voice of Mayor Reed, who greets travelers with self-aggrandizing North Korea-style loudspeaker announcements in which
he extols the virtues of his boring, sweaty little city and labors mightily to associate himself with military men.
It's the 500-megawatt-amplifier version of those dumb signs in which Governor Andrew Cuomo welcomes Fairfield County
commuters to New York every time they cross the line from Connecticut: Using public infrastructure for purely
self-promotional purposes, as though all of New York State were a gubernatorial fiefdom and all of Atlanta Kasim Reed's
personal playground.
She
Spoke Up About Cooked ISIS Intel. They Booted Her — for Cursing. She worked on and off for
five years identifying targets for the U.S. military's Central Command. And then, when, some believe, she spoke up
about cherry-picked intelligence in the ISIS war, she was drummed out of her job — allegedly for cursing twice in
the span of the year. Those were just some of the surreal allegations thrown around last week in a Tampa law office
conference room turned into a quasi-courtroom. Had the case not involved the third-highest ranking person at the
Defense Intelligence Agency, a two-star general, a military judge, and hours of testimony — all at a cost of
thousands of dollars — it would have been hard to take seriously. Even with those high-ranking officials,
at times it was hard not to do a double-take about what was happening.
It
Takes 300 Hours to Become a Shampooer in Tennessee. In 1996, the Tennessee General Assembly passed a law
requiring natural hair stylists to attain a cosmetologist's license through the state's Board of Cosmetology and Barber
Examiners. Natural hair braiders like [Tammy] Nutall had excelled in their craft for years, learning braiding from
their mothers and grandmothers. But now, the state was telling them they had to log more than 1,500 hours of education
through an eight-week course with costs topping $12,000, Nutall recalled, and all for a skill she pioneered in Tennessee.
Federal
Regulations Now Cost Almost $1.9 Trillion, Study Finds. Just look at the balance between regulations and
laws. For every bill passed through Congress and signed by the president last year, regulators imposed 30 new
regulations. And at $1.885 trillion, the cost of regulations now exceeds the cost of federal individual and corporate
income taxes, which raised about $1.82 trillion last year. The CEI report shows that economic regulations (such as
market entry restrictions, price supports and the like) impose the biggest costs at $399 billion. That's followed by
environmental regulations at $386 billion, and — incredibly — the cost of complying with the tax code,
which is expected to be $316 billion this year.
Ten Thousand Commandments 2016. Ten Thousand
Commandments is the Competitive Enterprise Institute's annual survey of the size, scope and cost of federal regulations,
and how they affect American consumers, businesses, and the U.S. economy. [...] The scope of federal government spending,
deficits and the national debt is staggering, but so is the impact of federal regulations. Unfortunately, regulations
get too little attention in policy debates because, unlike taxes, they are unbudgeted.
Crony
Capitalism and the Spigot of Government Subsidies. Creating something that people want is how one gets wealthy
in a market economy. Sadly, there's another way to get rich. It's called cronyism, and it can make billions for
the lucky businesses that get government support — whether their products are profitable or not. In the
process, the taxpayers foot the bill. Taxpayer insurance against unprofitability takes many forms, from loan guarantees
to grants, which provide a no-lose scenario for beneficiaries. If the business is profitable, then the corporation makes
massive profits. If the business goes bust, then the taxpayers take a hit. Either way, the crony capitalist wins.
Obama's Civil
Rights Divisions. For the past seven years and counting the Obama administration has been engaged in a silent
war on the rights of the American people at the hands of an organized network of fringe leftist lawyers working within the
Civil Rights Divisions of the Department of Justice (DOJ) as well as the Department of Education (DOE). These lawyers have
been unleashed under the administration to push an ideological agenda that is far outside of the American mainstream all
under the banner of protecting civil rights. As noted by J. Christian Adams and Hans A. von Spakovsky of
PJ Media, if a president wanted to "fundamentally transform" the nation, he would likely start with the Civil Rights Division
of the Justice Department because the tentacles of that Division reach into virtually every crevice of American life. For
example, Adams and Spakovsky write that "Federal statutes, under the banner of protecting civil rights, reach home lending, football
stadium and theater seating, voting, elections, education, college admissions, apartment rentals, prisons, hiring practices, the use
of English, special education programs, religious liberty, abortion clinic protests, arrests, law enforcement, voter rolls, insane
asylums, state and local government hiring, swimming pool lift chairs, bathtub design, Spanish language ballots, school discipline,
and even if boys can dress in drag in high school". This list barely scratches the surface of the scope of the Civil Rights
Division's powers.
The
DOE is now in the High School Girl's Shower. For more than two decades Americans have become desensitized to
the arrogance, hubris and general incompetence of Washington insiders. Each succeeding administration has seemingly tried to
outdo the previous administration in outrageous conduct, whether it be in creative tax burdens or reasons for sending young
Americans to other countries to fight and die. Every day brings another revelation causing Americans to roll their eyes,
shake their heads, and wonder what, if anything, can be done to a government that seems to pay no attention to its citizens
whatsoever.
Pick
one thing and fight. The dismantling of America leaves one breathless as we face of an avalanche of horrors.
We've been dealing with a long roll out of evil with more to come. It shocks the mind trying to absorb it all. What can
citizens do to stop the fundamental transformation of our nation? How can we function effectively to save our country?
And how do we do so in a leadership vacuum?
Study:
GDP Would Be 25% Bigger If Government Regulations Had Been Capped In 1980. Under President Obama, annual GDP growth never
once even hit 3%. Under Bush before him, there were only two years when growth topped 3%. But in the two decades before that,
annual GDP growth was above 3% in all but six years. Growth has been so anemic for so long, we're now being told that this is the
"new normal." As the Bureau of Labor Statistics put it, "annual U.S. GDP growth exceeding 3% ... is not expected to be
attainable over the coming decade." It lists everything as a cause, except for one thing: federal regulations.
An
Amateur vs. ISIS: A Car Salesman Investigates and Ends Up in Prison. [Scroll down] He was pulled
into the murky world of Internet jihadists, sparring with them from his office at the car dealership and late into the night
at home. Before long, he was talking for hours on Skype with a man who claimed — falsely, as it would turn
out — to be a top ISIS military commander, trying to negotiate the release of hostages. Mr. Lopez
contacted the F.B.I. and began a testy relationship with counterterrorism agents who came to believe he might pose a
danger. In the end, he landed in federal prison, where he was held for nearly 14 months without trial.
Is
Eric Schneiderman colluding with other AGs in an illicit war on Exxon? New York Attorney General Eric
Schneiderman and other state AGs are probing ExxonMobil — but maybe they're the ones who should be
investigated. E-mails obtained by a free-market think tank (the Energy & Environment Legal Institute) show Schneiderman
& Co. colluded with two activists last month just before the AGs rolled out their anti-Exxon campaign. A top Schneiderman
aide even tried to keep the press in the dark about the role of one activist, Matt Pawa. Pawa was also in the loop for a
January meeting by various groups — Greenpeace, the Working Families Party, the Rockefeller Family Fund —
to plan how to "delegitimize [Exxon] as a political actor," smear it publicly as "corrupt" and steer away investors.
Democrat
A.G.'s Colluded With Eco-Nazis to Punish Political Opponents. Emails obtained by the Energy & Environment Legal
Institute (E&E Legal) show that the offices of New York Democratic Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and those of other
politically aligned AGs, secretly teamed up with anti-fossil fuel activists to launch investigations against groups whose
political speech challenged the global warming policy agenda. These emails, obtained under open records laws, shed
light on what followed after a January meeting, reported by the Wall Street Journal on April 14, in which groups funded
by anti-fossil fuel Rockefeller interests met to urge just this sort of investigation and litigation against political opponents.
AGs,
activists accused of 'collusion' on Exxon probe amid new emails. State Democratic officials are facing mounting
accusations they secretly coordinated with climate activists to investigate whether ExxonMobil hid the truth about global
warming, as new documents show the collaboration went deeper than previously thought. Emails obtained and released by
the Energy & Environment Legal Institute show a number of state attorneys general and their staff received advice and
guidance from environmental activists at a March 29 meeting in New York, on the same day as a major press conference.
TX Judge resigns when caught
texting instructions to prosecutors to help win convictions. Texas district Judge Elizabeth E. Coker is stepping down from
the bench after being caught engaging in a massive perversion of justice. A whistleblower revealed that Corker was sending text messages
to prosecutors with suggestions on questions to ask in court in order to secure a conviction.
The Cannons
of Government. The people cannot express their will through a government that seeks to impose its will upon
them. As President Obama withdraws American influence from the world, he extends a malicious imperial doctrine into the
domestic private sector. In exercising its vast regulatory powers, his administration has discovered the means by which
it may exceed its lawful commission given by the people as expressed in their written Constitution. Therefore, against
the willful disregard of fundamental law by a few in the power of office, the people must hold dearly their own legitimate
right and obligation to correct their government.
Panama
Papers: The Elites' Shield From Laws Imposed On Us. With the release of the Panama Papers Sunday [4/3/2016],
it's increasingly clear that the global elites in politics, business and sports have two sets of rules — one for
them, and one for the rest of us.
Report: Obama Admin's
Effort to 'Eliminate Red Tape' Adds $16 Billion in Costs. The Obama administration's effort to eliminate red
tape added $16 billion in regulatory costs, according to a new report by the American Action Forum obtained by the Washington
Free Beacon. "President Obama signed executive orders (13,563 and 13,610) as part of an effort to 'eliminate red tape.'
Federal agencies were told to 'modify, streamline expand, or repeal' existing regulations," according to the report released by
AAF, a center-right nonprofit led by Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office. The American
Action Forum has found the reviews consist mostly of recycled regulations by federal agencies that have actually increased regulatory
costs. "The recent 'retrospective reports' from the administration reveal that executive agencies have added more than
$16 billion in regulatory costs, up from $14.7 billion in the previous update, and 6.5 million paperwork hours,"
the report said.
Obama
regulations whack GOP states, go easy on liberal states. Sweeping and expensive regulations pushed by President
Obama have had a lopsided effect on states that voted for Obama's presidential foes, Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain,
according to a new George Mason University study of the impact of rules and regulations. The top 14 states crushed the
hardest by financial and environmental regulations sought by Obama voted for Romney in the last election and generally trend
Republican in other elections. They include Louisiana, Texas, Indiana, Kentucky and Alabama.
Turning
back the leviathan of the administrative state. There are two stacks of papers in Utah Senator Mike Lee's office that should cause all
Americans to pause. One stack is 400 pages; the other is over 80,000 pages. The short stack is all of the laws Congress passed
in 2014. The 11-foot tall tower is all federal regulations. Senator Lee and other members of Congress see this disparity as indicative of
not just a growing government, but an erosion of the separation of powers. They are correct. When James Madison authored Federalist 47,
he gave voice to a sentiment shared widely by the Founders: consolidating executive, legislative, and judicial power into one entity is "the very
definition of tyranny." To preserve self-government, the Constitution separated those powers into three branches. As new laws may restrict
liberty, separated power ensures that one faction of society cannot run roughshod over another. Debate, compromise and consensus should ensure
that any new regulations are enacted with wide public agreement.
Rule
by bureaucrat. [Scroll down] Why do federal agencies have so much power to begin with? In simplest terms,
it's Congress' fault. The lawmakers you elect to make law have gotten into the habit of passing remarkably vague legislation.
The law your senator or representative votes for to do Good Thing X is often full of blanks. Somebody has to fill in those
blanks — to specify all the details about how X will be accomplished. Increasingly, that somebody is not a man or
woman who's directly answerable to you, but someone you'll never meet. Someone who can't be voted out of office for failing to
look after your interests.
Yes, Mr. President:
Capitalism Is Better. [Scroll down] One can see how Obama's "pragmatism" is both laughable and pathetic.
Listen to the dichotomous thinking that our dear president wants to discourage. There is no significant difference between the
sanctity of property ownership and a society where there is no ownership (thus no need for contracts). There is no significant
difference between a society where the government is the only employer and a society where competing companies hire people.
There is no significant difference between a society where there are infinite regulations that discourage entrepreneurship and a
society where entrepreneurship is encouraged. There is no significant difference between a country that has a vast network
of private banking with access to funds competing for venture capital and a country where all the banks are owned and controlled
by the government.
The Lunacy of
One-Size-Fits-All Law & Regulation. [Scroll down] It's called The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), which
is a federal law that seeks to keep American Indian children with American Indian families. Congress passed the ICWA in 1978
in response to the alarmingly high number of Indian children being removed from their homes by both public and private agencies.
The intent of Congress under the ICWA is to "protect the best interests of Indian children and to promote the stability and security
of Indian tribes and families (25 U.S.C. § 1902). ICWA sets federal requirements that apply to state child custody
proceedings involving an Indian child who is a member of or eligible for membership in a federally recognized tribe." So here is
[...] yet another example of the government screwing things up and then passing a law or regulation to solve the problem that they
caused. First they pass a law to be able to remove the children — then must pass another to return them, never
considering the individual children or families. But of course the "experts" in the federal government always know what's best.
Obama holds his
own... Umbrella. In previous such outings in rain or storm with President Obama, his Secret Service detail were shamefully
abused by being forced to hold umbrellas over the heads of Obama and whomever else he thought warranted the cover. To outside
observers, this may not seem a big deal, but to cognoscenti, the use of Secret Service agents for any purpose other than alert
protection is unlawful.
The
Left Is Embracing Orwellian Policies to Go After 'Climate Deniers'. Just when we thought liberalism can't get
any more authoritarian, the Obama administration reminds us that it can. Attorney General Loretta Lynch recently confirmed
that she had "referred" the "matter" of whether climate change "deniers" should be brought to court on racketeering charges to
the FBI. Yes, that's right. If you happen to disagree with the administration's views of global warming, you could
face a civil suit accusing you of fraud and corruption. This represents a breathtaking corruption of the law. Laws
designed to catch mafia figures on corruption charges could be twisted to punish Americans whose only crime is to contest the
Obama administration's view of climate change.
Rick
Perry [is] A Victim Of Democrats' Politicization Of Courts. A Texas appeals court wadded up and threw out the "abuse of power" indictment
against Gov. Rick Perry this week, the latest in a line of such harassment suits against effective political officials. It was the right move.
But given what it cost Perry, where's the "abuse of power" charge against his odious assailants? It was a travesty. The distinguished governor
of Texas, just finishing 14 years in office characterized by a dazzling economic record and a wagon-train of newcomers to his state, was hit with a
nuisance indictment claiming "abuse of power" and "intimidation of a public official" after he vetoed funding in 2013 for a portion of a state prosecutor's
office called the "public integrity unit." That followed after its top prosecutor, Rosemary Lehmberg, refused to resign after being picked up by the
cops for driving drunk and then, in a spectacular video caught on YouTube, drunkenly attempting to intimidate the officers from filing charges.
Rick
Perry Is Not Guilty, but Texas Is. Puff Daddy, or whatever his name is now, has a friend in Rosemary Lehmberg.
The hip-hop impresario is an endorser of Cîroc vodka, and Lehmberg, who in her role at the Travis County prosecutor's office
oversees political crimes statewide, went through about 25 gallons of the stuff — 74 bottles — in the
course of a year. She had one of those bottles in her car when she was pulled over on suspicion of drunk driving. She was
convicted of the crime and went to jail. Texas being Texas, she is not the first prosecutor to have been carted off to the pokey
in shackles; truth be told, the state hasn't imprisoned nearly as many of its prosecutors as it should. [...] Upon her arrest, Lehmberg
immediately went into "Do You Know Who I Am?" mode and was so abusive that she had to be put in restraints. She demanded special
treatment and threatened law-enforcement personnel with legal retaliation for refusing to let her slide. Specifically, she
threatened to have them arrested.
Networks
Hyped Perry Indictment in 2014; Silent on Dismissal. Political scandals make for juicy journalism, but
apparently a politician being cleared of wrongdoing isn't even worth a mention. When the initial story of Rick Perry's
indictment broke in August 2014, ABC, CBS and NBC eagerly devoted 25 minutes in just two days to topic, speculating that the
controversy could "end any chance" for Perry in 2016. But when Perry was cleared of any wrongdoing on Wednesday, all three
networks were silent, on both the evening news shows that night and the morning news shows the following day, Thursday, February 25.
[However, with their similarly half-hour-long evening news broadcast, Univision's Noticiero Univision managed to give Perry's exoneration
20 seconds on Wednesday night.] The indictment came after then-Governor Perry vetoed funding for a public integrity unit after
the District Attorney in charge of the unit refused to resign after a drunk driving conviction.
Report:
Department of Education views for-profit colleges 'too big to fail'. For-profit colleges will keep wasting billions of taxpayer dollars if
the U.S. Department of Education continues to treat them as if they are "too big to fail," a new report said. Chris Hicks, who formerly led the
Debt-Free Future campaign for the advocacy group Jobs With Justice, said the Education Department has refused to use its authority to regulate such
colleges, setting up students and taxpayers for massive financial blunders.
End the Army
coverup on the 'lost dogs of war'. From Bernie Sanders to Ted Cruz, the presidential candidates talk up
how much they care for America's veterans. Well, Sunday's [New York] Post suggests a test: Will any of them
fight for the "lost dogs of war"? Maureen Callahan's expose shows the Pentagon repeatedly breaking its promise to
reunite bomb-sniffing dogs with their handlers on the pups' return from war. Instead, private firm K2 Solutions
routinely places the four-footed veterans in civilian hands. Never mind that a federal law passed in 2000 mandates
that soldiers who handled the animals in Iraq, Afghanistan and so on get the chance to adopt their dogs. Callahan
uncovered evidence that three Pentagon employees took dogs for themselves.
California district reported
incorrect numbers while 'shaming' water wasters. East Bay Municipal Utility District, which serves counties in the San Francisco Bay Area, recently
released lists of more than 4,200 customers accused of violating the water usage limit imposed to combat the lingering drought. That limit is roughly
1,000 gallons per household each day. However, an investigation from the Contra Costa Times revealed that some figures were off by 1,000 or more.
One retired woman was listed as using more than 5,000 gallons per day when the real number was just over 1,000, the newspaper reports.
FDNY
chief had Bravest shovel out his home while Queens froze. Two FDNY crews were dispatched to Commissioner Daniel Nigro's
Queens home in the aftermath of the blizzard — just to clear a patch of snow that was blocking his path to the street, The
[New York] Post has learned. At least eight firefighters made the run to Nigro's private Whitestone residence at 8:49 a.m. Sunday
[1/24/2016] and when they got there, he instructed them to shovel a 3-foot wall of snow between his walkway and the street, sources said.
FBI
ran website sharing thousands of child porn images. For nearly two weeks last year, the FBI operated what it described as
one of the Internet's largest child pornography websites, allowing users to download thousands of illicit images and videos from a
government site in the Washington suburbs. The operation — whose details remain largely secret — was at least the
third time in recent years that FBI agents took control of a child pornography site but left it online in an attempt to catch users
who officials said would otherwise remain hidden behind an encrypted and anonymous computer network. In each case, the FBI
infected the sites with software that punctured that security, allowing agents to identify hundreds of users.
More
Government Abuse: 120 Years in Prison for Firing Two Shots in the Air. An Army veteran has been charged with 12 criminal counts
for firing two shots off in the air that hit no one. He didn't hurt anyone. This is a case of blatant prosecutorial abuse.
How America can be saved from stupid
people. During the last few decades, politicians learned they could "buy" their way into elected office by
promising various constituencies free stuff, such as favorable treatment for "well-connected" companies and welfare for those
who did not want to work. Government bureaucracies grew large to administer all the free handouts, and, of course, the free
stuff had to come from somewhere, so politicians either took it from people who worked hard or, increasingly, borrowed it.
Our national debt is an estimated $18 trillion, which is about the size of our economy. We make the debt that recently
brought down Greece look like a poorly-run Monopoly game. When our debt comes due, it may resemble the Great Depression of
the 1930s and bring down the entire world economy. The politicians took care of their own, of course. And by "their
own" I mean the vast bureaucracies — federal and state employees' unions, teachers' unions, police forces, and prison
systems — that grew up to support the politicians' goals of transferring the wealth of those who worked to those
who kept them in office.
Racism, Power and Control.
The bureaucrats within a multitude of ever growing agencies that create regulation after regulation based upon their parties
fanatical ideology; the tenured professors who restrict the usage of words they deem offensive while punishing those who dare
challenge them by practicing their right to free speech; the scientists who go along in propagating an erroneous myth of
"climate change"; the journalists who act as the praetorian guard media as they spew this administrations talking points from
healthcare to the environment and everything in between; finally we have the professional politicians who abdicate their
responsibilities once elected into office as they campaign on a platform of lies and deceit. All of this adds to the
growing environment of authoritarianism as those who are currently in power seek to facilitate deception and manipulation
of thought upon our society.
Global
Tyranny Just Getting Warmed Up. The great revolution of political progressivism was its creation of an intermediary
mechanism, the administrative state, to filter the relation between the oppressors and the oppressed. The regulatory bureaucracy
depersonalizes tyranny, diluting its real meaning with legalistic paperwork and soporific incrementalism. The bureaucratic
labyrinth, with its officious, abstract, uncommunicative language, is the perfect guardian for the craven greed and power lust that
occupy the offices on the top floor but dare not show their true faces in a "democratic" society. With obscure jargon and banal
committee reports, the administrative state trivializes the property-obliteration of confiscatory taxes, the horror of government-normalized
mass killing (from "abortion on demand" to "palliative care"), the moral outrage of state-controlled child-rearing ("public school"),
and the freedom-slaying thousand cuts of state-micromanaged daily life, recasting them as mere annoyances, equivalent to household
chores. History will someday show that the great coup of progressive authoritarianism was its translation of despotic decrees
into the language of white papers, statistical analyses, and policy proposals.
Obama pushing thousands of new
regulations in Year 8. Nearly 4,000 regulations are squirming their way through the federal bureaucracy in the last year of
Barack Obama's presidency — many costing industry more than $100 million — in a mad dash by the White House to
push through government actions affecting everything from furnaces to gun sales to Guantánamo. That means a full court press at
the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to reduce exposure limits for silica, a chemical used widely in construction and
fracking that can cause cancer when inhaled; at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, to require more small-scale gun
sellers to perform background checks; and at the Food and Drug Administration, to make food manufacturers disclose on product labels how
much sugar they add to cranberry juice.
The
Spending and Tax Lollapalooza. In the dead of night, House Republicans unveiled a massive tax and spending
bill. The bill comes with a price tag of more than $2 trillion — and your member of Congress will never
read it. At 2,009 pages, House members would have to read one page a minute over the next 48 hours without
any bathroom breaks, sleeping, Christmas parties, lobbyist meetings, or taxpayer-funded steak dinners to interrupt them.
Of course, that wont happen. Whether you are liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat, the fact that your elected
representative will cast a consequential vote on your behalf, dear constituent, without fully comprehending what he or she is
voting on, is nothing short of outrageous and a dereliction of responsibility.
Terrorists
are a real threat. So is your government with a blank check. What should we do about terrorism? After the
attacks on Paris, the French government passed a law that allows anyone suspected of being a security threat to be placed
under house arrest and searches to be conducted without warrants. [...] France also decided that it now has a right to copy
data from anyone government deems of interest. By "anyone," though, the politicians didn't mean politicians. They exempted
themselves — and journalists, lawyers and diplomats. Insiders protect their own. Of course, this will inspire
terrorists to pose as — or become — politicians, journalists, lawyers and diplomats. France also claims
the right to control TV, radio and theater content that might incite violence.
The
Growing Threat Of "Dark Matter" Regulations. In his seven years in office, President Obama has signed 895 bills into law.
Over the same period, federal regulators issued 24,478 rules. If you want an example of how unaccountable the federal government has
become, it doesn't get much better than that. The regulatory state is so massive that the government doesn't even know how many regulatory
agencies there are. Counts range from a low of 60 to a high of 438. But this is just the tip of the regulatory iceberg, according to
a report from the Competitive Enterprise Institute titled "Mapping Washington's Lawlessness."
Little
Sisters of the Poor vs. Government Almighty. Whether it's President Obama ordering his HHS secretary to
bring intransigent nuns to heel or the Emperor Trajan advising a provincial governor on the proper punishment of unrepentant
Christians, it's all about worshipping the state gods. During Trajan's reign, that meant forcing people to betray their
faith by making them participate in the imperial cult. This typically involved a public sacrifice to the "divine" Augustus.
Refusal to do so resulted in very unpleasant consequences. In our era, it means forcing people to betray their faith by making
them subsidize the sacraments of the secular state, like abortion on demand and "free" abortifacients. Refusal to obey means
financial destruction by means of ruinous federal fines.
Armed
militias and concealed carry: It is Lexington and Concord time. Thomas Paine wrote in the "Rights of Man"
(1791): "The fact, therefore, must be that the individuals, themselves, each, in his own personal and sovereign right,
entered into a contract with each other to produce a government: and this is the only mode in which governments have
a right to arise, and the only principle on which they have a right to exist." That is, government is a construct of and
accountable to its citizens and whenever the actions of government are contrary to their interests and well-being, citizens
have the right to defy or dissolve the government.

Uncle
Sam Owns This Much Of America. Uncle Sam owns nearly one out of every three acres in the United States —
640 million acres of the entire country's 2.27 billion acres. But "a picture is worth a thousand words," according
to Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert, chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources' Subcommittee on Oversight and
Investigations. So, his full committee created an interactive map revealing every acre the federal government owns in each
congressional district, color-coded by agency. Those 640 million acres aren't enough for the White House and federal
bureaucrats, as they're constantly trying to grab more for environmental reasons, Gohmert says.
We'll
Tell You Which Black Lives Matter. [Scroll down] Congress has delegated pretty much everything they are
responsible for — other than fund raising, pandering to special interest groups and holding court for lobbyists — to either
staff or administrative agencies. Justice Thomas' very legitimate point is that we've reached the point where the hundreds
of thousands of "rules" that are written to "implement" the laws passed by Congress dictate how we are allowed to go about
living our lives. This is not how the Founding Fathers envisioned America working.
The
surprising reason behind Obama's aggressive drive to regulate you more. Clearly, Americans are incapable of
living their everyday lives without explicit written guidance from Washington bureaucrats. Thankfully, a caring Barack
Obama and his minions are working feverishly these days to guide us on their proper path by writing and imposing a record
number of costly regulations before his reign ends in 416 days.
Obama
Turns Thanksgiving Into Rulesgiving. With little fanfare, the White House announced more than 2,000 new regulations —
including 144 deemed "economically significant" — just before Thanksgiving. The law requires doing this twice a year, and
Obama has followed it faithfully — repeatedly releasing rafts of costly new rules just days before holidays, when people are most
distracted and not paying attention. Luckily, Heritage Foundation fellow James Gattuso is paying attention. He notes that the
144 new economically significant rules is a record, breaking the previous high of 136 set just last spring.
Also posted
under Friday night document dumps.
One-in-five
Americans still trusts the federal government! It's not really surprising that after seven years of an
administration of serial liars, empty promises and failed plans, an overwhelming percentage of the public does not trust
elected officials, their politics or the government they're supposed to be running. What's really shocking is that 19% of
Americans still do. Nearly one-in-five say they can always or most always trust that Washington crowd. Seriously?
Who are these people?
Punishing the Obama
way. Mr. Obama's minions have prosecuted an oil producer for inadvertently allowing a duck that landed in a
waste pond to die while granting solar and wind power producers the right to kill thousands of ducks, geese, eagles and
endangered birds that get in their way, and they argue for more and more criminal penalties to be imposed on men and women
who have unwittingly violated regulations they don't even know exist.
Feds Send Man to Jail for
Overfishing as 6,000 Drug Convicts are Freed. These are embarrassing times for the nation's criminal justice system; as the Obama administration
executes the nation's largest mass release of federal prisoners, it's sending a Long Island fisherman to jail for reeling in too many.
Whitesplain
This: A Response to My Hypocritical Accusers, Black and White. In our culture these days, the ability to take
offense is a kind of power. Liberals abuse this power like a drunk cop with a nightstick. They abuse it so much,
they have become addicted to it and become blind to the reality in front of them.
America's Soft Tyranny is
Hardening. American citizens outside of the protective bubble of the government are not only expendable, they are
fodder for bureaucratic abuse. The IRS, the EPA, the DOJ, the VA, and the FEC under Obama are free to target and abuse those
of us without the financial or government resources to protect ourselves. The countless good people who were targeted by the
IRS were prevented from exercising the freedoms guaranteed to them by the Constitution. The actions of Lerner and the IRS very
likely changed the outcome of the 2012 election. That was the plan and it worked. Prevent, with malice aforethought,
hundreds of conservative groups across the country from organizing and raising money for their cause and you have silenced millions
of people.
Forced Silence. Before
dawn, Deborah Jordahl was awakened by the sound of cops banging on her front door. She rushed downstairs before police used
their battering ram to break the door down. The officers then said her household was under criminal investigation. They
ordered Deborah and her son Adam to step aside while they took her family's computers, cellphones and files. They also told
her, don't talk to anyone about this investigation! If you do, you may be jailed! They wouldn't tell her why. [...] This
forced silence lasted five years, until Wisconsin's Supreme Court finally ordered the Joe Doe investigations stopped, saying
prosecutors used "theories of law that do not exist."
Ted Cruz Dismantles Liberal Plantation Politics At Senate Judiciary
Committee Hearing. Fifty-five years ago, there were 13 regulatory federal government agencies. Today, there are over 70.
Fifty-five years ago, the Code of Federal Regulations contained 23,000 pages — a sizeable amount. Today, the Code of Federal Regulations
takes up an astounding 175,000 pages and 235 volumes — all in incredibly small print. Somehow the American people are
expected to comply with 175,000 pages of regulations that no one person can even begin to understand. [...] Although an inexact science,
estimates of federal regulations are estimated to increase costs up to possibly $2 trillion a year. Is it any wonder we have
the economic stagnation, so many millions hurting, when the federal government is putting $2 trillion a year of costs on small businesses,
on those trying to create jobs and opportunity?
Our
Lawless Secret Service. Let's not shy away from what the Secret Service actually was up to in the matter of its
illegal spying on Representative Jason Chaffetz: conspiracy to commit blackmail against a member of Congress. Representative
Chaffetz has been investigating the scandal-plagued protective agency — the habitual drunkenness and whoring of its
agents, among other things — when Secret Service personnel improperly accessed his protected records in a hunt for dirt.
The aim of this was made clear by assistant director Ed Lowery, who wrote to assistant director Faron Paramore: "Some information
that he might find embarrassing needs to get out."
Watchdog:
Top Secret Service official wanted information about congressman made public. An assistant director of the
Secret Service urged that unflattering information the agency had in its files about a congressman critical of the service
should be made public, according to a government watchdog report released Wednesday [9/30/2015]. "Some information that
he might find embarrassing needs to get out," Assistant Director Edward Lowery wrote in an e-mail to a fellow director on
March 31, commenting on an internal file that was being widely circulated inside the service. "Just to be fair."
Distracted
from an Ever-Growing Police State. Caught up in the spectacle of the forthcoming 2016 presidential elections,
Americans (never very good when it comes to long-term memory) have not only largely forgotten last year's hullabaloo over
militarized police, police shootings of unarmed citizens, asset forfeiture schemes, and government surveillance but are also
generally foggy about everything that has happened since. Then again, so much is happening on a daily basis that it's
understandable if the average American has a hard time keeping up with and remembering all of the "events," manufactured or
otherwise, which occur like clockwork and keep us distracted, deluded, amused, and insulated from reality while the
government continues to amass more power and authority over the citizenry. In fact, when we're being bombarded with
wall-to-wall news coverage and news cycles that change every few days, it's difficult to stay focused on one thing —
namely, holding the government accountable to abiding by the rule of law — and the powers-that-be understand this.
Government:
Here to Help! People once borrowed from private banks, which applied market discipline. If they thought you
wanted to borrow more than you would likely repay, banks wouldn't lend you the money. But now government —
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration — guarantee nearly every loan. That helped create
the last housing bubble. After it burst, and taxpayers were charged nearly $2 billion to bail out the FHA, the politicians
assured the public they would fix this to make sure it never happened again. But they didn't. Today, once again, more than
90 percent of home loans are backed by taxpayers, and after briefly raising down-payment requirements, the FHA will again make
loans to people who make down payments of as little as 3 percent. A sensible solution would be to get government out
of the home loan business, but even Republicans claim government support for homebuilding is needed. It isn't.
Canada has no Fannie, Freddie or FHA, and no housing bubble. In Canada, lenders and homeowners risk their own
money, yet just as many people are able to buy homes.
Noose on James Meredith statue gets former Mississippi
student 6 months in prison. A former University of Mississippi student who admitted helping place a noose on a statue of a civil rights
activist is going to prison.
The Editor says...
One might easily imagine that if it had been a statue of George W. Bush, the student would be given some sort of award for artistic expression.
Forget Justice: Government Just Wants
Money. The justice system is supposed to be about, well, justice. It's why district attorneys are ethically obliged
to pursue convictions only against people they believe to have committed the crime. They are not supposed to pursue convictions
at all costs to bolster their careers.
A Military
Coup in the U.S.? A Surprising Number of Americans Might Support One. Imagine you're watching the evening news,
kicking back after a long day in the cubicle. Suddenly a breaking news alert flashes across the screen: "Military Coup
Overthrows the Government." What would be your reaction? While most Americans say they can't imagine supporting a
takeover of the government by the armed forces, or least aren't sure about it, a substantial number of people say they can
imagine supporting the military in such a scenario.
The FBI successfully thwarts its own Terrorist plot. The FBI is
obviously quite pleased with itself over its arrest of a 19-year-old Somali-American, Mohamed Osman Mohamud, who — with
months of encouragement, support and money from the FBI's own undercover agents — allegedly attempted to detonate a bomb
at a crowded Christmas event in Portland, Oregon. Media accounts are almost uniformly trumpeting this event exactly as the FBI
describes it. Loyalists of both parties are doing the same, with Democratic Party commentators proclaiming that this proves
how great and effective Democrats are at stopping The Evil Terrorists, while right-wing polemicists point to this arrest as yet
more proof that those menacing Muslims sure are violent and dangerous. What's missing from all of these celebrations is
an iota of questioning or skepticism.
The USS Cole: Twelve years later, no justice
or understanding. One thing about kids is that overall they have much less history which can be challenged
through examination of the evidence provided by experiences and relationships. What we know about them comes from brief
periods of their independence for which the official investigations provide all the information. This ability to control the
story could be why, since 9/11, we have seen the FBI caught in several attempts to entrap teenagers in terrorist plots manufactured
by the FBI itself.
Six months earlier...
Agents'
chatter in Osmakac sting skirts line between protection, entrapment. Months after Sami
Osmakac started serving a 40-year sentence for terrorism, debate continues over the FBI sting
operation that landed him in prison. Was Osmakac a mentally ill, penniless radical incapable of
causing serious harm or a dangerous would-be terrorist stopped before he could strike? Newly
disclosed transcripts of private conversations among FBI investigators provide fuel for both
scenarios while highlighting the dual challenge law enforcement faces in taking the time to
build a legal case while protecting the public.
The Rule Of Law In America: An
Autopsy. The best indicator for the unbearable luxuriance of law is the legal library even the humblest practitioner is
required to maintain. Hundreds of thick volumes populate the shelves... but even perfect knowledge of their contents would not
be a sufficient guide to the law, for today's lawyer is perforce a specialist. He operates in a corner of the law, defined by
subject matter and geographical application, and dares not venture beyond it without consulting another lawyer whose specialty would
adequately supplement his. If the heavily educated, licensed practitioners of law are so confined, what, then, could the common
citizen know of it?
In Trashing Land,
The EPA Has Nothing On The Forest Service. Americans now comprehend fully the disdain the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) has for truth-telling, the rights of others, and the environment. [...] Even so, the EPA has nothing on the U.S.
Forest Service. In documents filed days ago in a federal district court in Arkansas, the agency and its lawyers demand
dismissal of a $5 million lawsuit against the United States for decades of tortious use and abuse of a Scot-Irish family's
farmland settled one hundred years before the Ozark National Forest's creation made the Forest Service the family's neighbor.
Worse yet, Conner Eldridge, the United States Attorney for Arkansas, argues that, because the Forest Service trespassed upon
Matthew McIlroy's farm for years, the government owns the land! The assertion, which has no factual or legal support, is
asinine, absurd, and in conflict with an admonition of the Supreme Court of the United States.
The
Justice Department's 'Grotesque' Misconduct against New Orleans Cops. As we've previously observed, the Obama
jihad to fundamentally transform America's police, spearheaded by the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, proceeds
from the premise that police departments are corrupt institutions, beset by a culture of racism and law-breaking. This week,
after a federal appeals court's exposé of a breathtaking prosecutorial conspiracy to deprive indicted cops of their
civil rights, and then cover it up, it is again time to ask: Which is the corrupt institution beset by a culture of
racism and law-breaking — the nation's police, or the Justice Department, which presumes to tame them?
Well, At Least the DHS Finally
Started Profiling: Problem is, they're only targeting conservatives. James O'Keefe, an investigative reporter with
Project Veritas, crossed the border in 2014 dressed as Osama Bin Laden. Since the video showing his crossing was posted on
YouTube, an apparently embarrassed DHS has targeted O'Keefe for interrogation at least a half-dozen times.
Conservative
video-maker James O'Keefe: Homeland Security targeted me, asked intrusive questions. Conservative journalist
James O'Keefe, known for targeting liberal groups and Democratic politicians, says he is now the one being targeted —
by the Department of Homeland Security. It all started in August 2014 when O'Keefe donned green fatigues and an Osama
bin Laden costume and sneaked across the U.S. border to Mexico and then back into Texas, a stunt cited by Sen. John McCain
(R-Ariz.) during congressional hearings. His point, O'Keefe said in an interview Wednesday [8/12/2015], was to "show
that our elected officials were lying to the American people" by saying the border is secure.
Obama's
"Community Schools" Aim to Replace the Family. Lawmakers and the Obama administration are plotting to
unconstitutionally commandeer local schools and turn them into "full-service community schools" — government
centers that will usurp vast new responsibilities over children that have traditionally been handled by parents and families.
Under the plan, adopted in the Senate last month as part of a massive "education bill" solidifying federal control over children and
schools, federally funded so-called community schools will "target" families and children for "services" covering their "academic,
physical, social, emotional, health, mental health, and other needs." If Congress and the Obama administration get their way,
these full-service parent-replacement centers will soon be coming to a community near you, along with the swarms of government
workers in charge of "home visitation" and "parenting education" under the program. In fact, even without legislation to
authorize it, Obama's education bureaucracy has already started using tax funds to create the "community schools" nationwide.
America:
Founded in Liberty, Descended into Tyranny. What started as a small list of enumerated
powers in the Constitution, has evolved to hundreds of thousands of pages of laws and regulations in
the Federal Register, and a government that has debt greater than the entire gross domestic product
of the nation. Laws have become so obtrusive that in any given day, millions of our fellow citizens
can unwittingly commit "crimes" against the state, as documented in the Alan Dershowitz and Harvey
Silverglate book, "Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent." We are so far removed
from our foundation of individual liberty, that literally every action of every day that we engage in is
regulated, taxed, or overseen by an omnipotent Master governing its peon subjects. The tyrannical
control of our lives far, far exceeds the relatively minor transgressions of King George against our
founding colonists.
You
Know You Live in a Conservative State When... Over in Williamson County, Tennessee — just north
of my home — prosecutors actually filed a motion asking the court to order a defense attorney to stop calling
them "the government" in open court. Yes, that's right — in my home state, it's apparently now a slur
to call the government by its name.
FBI
mined secrets from George McGovern's past. On April 16, 1975, two FBI inspectors met
with Sen. George McGovern in Washington. A month earlier, McGovern had written a letter to FBI
Director Clarence Kelley asking for a copy of any file that the FBI kept on him. In fact,
unbeknownst to McGovern, the FBI had accumulated a large file on the senator and 1972 Democratic
presidential nominee, but FBI officials were reluctant to share the information. The two FBI
inspectors met with McGovern to negotiate a compromise.
Too
Many Secrets. One of the most persistent challenges of U.S. national security policy
is balancing the short-term benefits of secrecy with the long-term benefits of openness. Government
agencies responsible for dealing with national security threats will often be more effective if they
are allowed to keep certain details about their activities secret. But openness is not just a cherished
American value; it is a core element of American strength. Government officials who ignore this fact
and insist on secrecy whenever it seems convenient will serve their agencies and their country poorly.
Official
City Of St Louis Vehicle Spotted Sporting Anti-RTW Propaganda. In a democracy (in third grade, the
concept of a Constitutional Republic was slightly beyond our grasp), city governments were elected to discern the
will of the people and govern accordingly. [...] In theory, that means that no city official should promote a
specific political agenda while on duty. In theory, that means that no one should affix paraphernalia
associated with a specific political agenda to an official vehicle. Why the impromptu civics refresher?
Obviously, someone employed by the city of St Louis missed it back in the third grade.
Truth
is an existential threat to the US government. The United States is not a constitutional republic. It is an
oligarchy controlled by wealthy financiers who hire politicians to pass legislation beneficial to them and employ journalists to
keep the citizens ignorant and compliant. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans believe in democracy. It is simply
an ideological contest between two different forms of totalitarianism based on big government, where they represent only themselves
in their pursuit of personal power and profit. Over the last hundred years, the Democrat Party has moved farther and farther
to the left, evolving from populism to Marxism and developing an operational model resembling that of the mafia. Its leaders
are a gaggle of coffeehouse communists and unindicted felons, who seek the lifestyles of the rich and famous while practicing the
politics of Joseph Stalin. The Republicans are democratic only in the sense that they are willing to sell their votes to the
highest bidder, where their political power and, ultimately, compensation from their rich donors increase proportionally with the
expansion of government.
Wisconsin
Supreme Court ends 'John Doe' investigations. The Wisconsin state Supreme Court has
ruled 4-2 that the "John Doe" investigations targeting Governor Walker and several conservative
groups in the state should be ended, and that no violations of the campaign finance law occurred.
Thus ends one of the most bizarre and frightening chapters in the history of American law enforcement.
The investigation into whether the Walker campaign colluded with outside groups was marked by pre-dawn SWAT
raids on ordinary people's homes, as the hyper-partisan prosecutor — whose wife was an official
with a local teachers' union — sought to intimidate conservatives statewide.
Obamuments:
There Are Now 260 Million Acres Of 'National Monuments'. President Barack Obama has
designated more than one million acres of land as "national monuments," meaning the president has
restricted the use of 260 million acres of U.S. lands and waters. Obama has designated Berryessa
Snow Mountain in California, Waco Mammoth in Texas and the Basin and Range in Nevada as national monuments
under the Antiquities Act. Together, these national monuments make up more than one million acres.
The Coming Confrontation.
[Scroll down] Even our Supreme Court has been assigned a role in the destruction of the
American culture. There are parameters that the Court must abide by that have been trampled into
oblivion. Ethics have been set aside for political purposes in both the Obamacare and same sex
decision. States are laboratories for managed societal change and state's rights have been
circumvented for the benefit of the Federal government and those dependent on it. The non-recusal of
both Ginsburg and Kagan are just the start of a judicial system that is progressive in nature and no
longer follows the principled law that this country is founded on.
New
national monuments in California, Texas and Nevada provoke ire. The White House plans
to designate three new national monuments Friday [7/10/2015] in California, Texas and Nevada, placing more than
a million acres under monument status despite some objections. The move brings the number of national
monuments to 19 created or expanded by President Barack Obama under the Antiquities Act of 1906, a move that's
been criticized as sidestepping the congressional process.
Mark
Levin: 'We've Had a Silent Coup in This Country'. Nationally syndicated radio talk show host
Mark Levin said that "we've had a silent coup in this country" with the Obama administration taking over
healthcare, targeting the suburbs, and nationalizing the local police. "His government doesn't have
the authority to do any of these things, but he does it," Levin said on his July 8 broadcast.
"Well, if that's not martial law, what the hell is? We've had a silent coup in this country."
[Audio clip.]
The
squeeze of regulatory kudzu. As with kudzu, the idea of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection seemed
like a good idea at the time, seeded and fertilized by good intentions. Its sponsors may have little imagined the
bureau's remarkable appetite for turf, little sated by the transfer of 14 federal statutes by the Dodd-Frank Act.
At a May conference on "big data," a senior bureau official reportedly observed that the failure of Congress to enact
laws is not necessarily a significant impediment to bureau involvement.
America's
only remaining choices — civil disobedience or collapse. The United States
no longer has, as the Constitution designed, a government composed of executive, legislative and
judicial branches, separate, but equal in power. The federal government is now an alliance of
branches, devoted to the preservation of government itself, separate, not from each other, but from
the American people and dedicated to tyranny. The policies pursued by the Obama Administration and
facilitated by cowardly politicians and a compliant media are not simply the intersection of radical
ideology and incompetence, but a dangerous subversive element of an anti-American and anti-Western strategy.
Constitutional
Remedies to a Lawless Supreme Court. This week, we have twice seen Supreme Court
justices violating their judicial oaths. Yesterday, the justices rewrote Obamacare, yet again, in
order to force this failed law on the American people. Today, the Court doubled down with a 5-4
opinion that undermines not just the definition of marriage, but the very foundations of our
representative form of government. Both decisions were judicial activism, plain and simple.
Both were lawless.
America's
post-Constitutional culture. Conservatives seem stunned that the U.S. Supreme Court
ignored the plain language of the ObamaCare statute and upheld the legality of the premium subsidies
that will flow indefinitely as the nation's newest entitlement. Their surprise is similar to the
shock they express every time the GOP congressional leadership passes a pork-laden spending
resolution that lasts through the end of the fiscal year, essentially denying budget hawks the
opportunity to trim federal spending. This march of federal spending is an entirely predictable
outcome. As foreseen by Tocqueville in 1835, America has developed a post-constitutional culture in
which citizens are transformed from independent citizens into weak dependents, fully reliant upon
the dispensations and "protections" of government. The Supreme Court and the Congress are now
largely infirm, fatally weakened by the growth of an Executive branch that provides ever-expanding
dispensations and "protections." The entitlement state has killed the separation of powers.
Where Waco Is Headed. F. Clinton Broden, the Dallas lawyer who is
representing Scimitars Motorcycle Club member Matthew Clendennen in a federal civil rights lawsuit against the City of Waco and
McLennan County, served a subpoena today [6/25/2015] for the video taken by the Waco Twin Peaks restaurant on May 17, 2015.
Broden wants the video by nine o'clock tomorrow morning. He is probably not going to get it. [...] The video Broden subpoenaed
is probably the only one anybody will ever see. The Waco police, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and
other police forces meticulously seized every possible video source. The video evidence that most directly contradicted the
official police narrative was probably transferred to ATF custody the first week and sent someplace where it could be easily
misplaced. The remaining, less dangerous videos were transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Customs
Agents To James O'Keefe: You're Being Detained For Investigating The Federal Government. U.S. Customs and
Border Patrol agents who detained conservative filmmaker James O'Keefe at the airport specifically asked him about the
work he's done investigating the "federal government." O'Keefe was detained by U.S. customs agents Monday [6/22/2015]
after arriving at the airport in Nassau, Bahamas en route to Miami. Agents told O'Keefe that he was being detained
for crossing back and forth across the U.S.-Mexico border while dressed as Osama bin Laden in a video that was published by
The Daily Caller. Agents marked his passport with an "X" and explained that he would be detained every time he enters
U.S. territory henceforth.
Conservatives
and Progressives Alike Despise Obamatrade; Only Beltway Insiders Love It. Americans
increasingly believe that their country isn't serving its own citizens. [...] The same routine plays
out over and again. We are told a massive bill must be passed, all the business lobbyists and
leaders tell how grand it will be, but that it must be rushed through before the voters spoil the
plan. As with Obamacare and the Gang of Eight, the politicians meet with the consultants to craft
the talking points — not based on what the bill actually does, but what they hope people
will believe it does. And when ordinary Americans who never asked for the plan, who don't want the
plan, who want no part of the plan, resist, they are scorned, mocked, and heaped with condescension.
Illegal
immigrant 'Dreamer' sees law license suspended. The illegal immigrant "Dreamer" whose law license was
approved by New York just two weeks ago, announced Thursday [6/18/2015] that his license has been delayed because he
is on probation from charges stemming from his activism. Cesar Vargas, a leader in the Dreamer movement, is
still on probation after being charged with trespassing for interrupting Rep. Steve King's presidential forum earlier
this year. He said he's paid all fines, but a county prosecutor in Iowa has refused to clear him, and even argues
he's a danger to society.
How Government Stifled Reason's Free Speech. For
the past two weeks, Reason, a magazine dedicated to "Free Minds and Free Markets," has been barred by an order from the U.S. District
Court for the Southern District of New York from speaking publicly about a grand jury subpoena that court sent to Reason.com. The
subpoena demanded the records of six people who left hyperbolic comments at the website about the federal judge who oversaw the controversial
conviction of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. Shortly after the subpoena was issued, the government issued a gag order prohibiting
Reason not only from discussing the matter but even acknowledging the existence of the subpoena or the gag order itself. As a wide
variety of media outlets have noted, such actions on the part of the government are not only fundamentally misguided and misdirected, they
have a tangible chilling effect on free expression by commenters and publications alike.
Anti-Hillary
Clinton Group Refuses to Change Name, Defying FEC Order. An anti-Hillary Clinton group
is refusing to change its name in an escalating dispute with the country's election watchdog agency.
The Federal Election Commission, which is tasked with enforcing campaign finance law, has ordered the
Stop Hillary PAC to cease incorporating Mrs. Clinton's name in its own or face penalties. At
issue is a federal rule barring independent groups from incorporating or using the name of a candidate
for federal office in their own names. The rule is designed to protect voters from mistaking
independent groups such as PACs and super PACs with official campaigns.
FEC Attempts
to Strong-Arm Anti-Hillary Group. Stop Hillary PAC on Tuesday [6/2/2015] responded to
federal regulators' attempts to force the group to change its name with a simple declaration:
"No." The Federal Election Commission told the group, a super PAC that opposes Democratic presidential
candidate Hillary Clinton, that it had to choose a different name in order to make clear that it is
not affiliated with Clinton's campaign. Stop Hillary PAC said that the concern was laughable.
It responded with a sternly worded and at times humorous letter declaring that the FEC's interpretation of
relevant regulations would "suppress citizens' First Amendment rights to engage in robust political speech."
'Stop
Hillary' group pointedly refuses to change name after FEC request. A group called the
"Stop Hillary PAC" is pointedly refusing to change its name after the Federal Election Commission
(FEC) said it could be running afoul of campaign finance laws by using former Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton's name without her authorization. In an April 27 letter, the FEC
wrote to Dan Backer, counsel for the group, pointing out that the name of the group included a name
of a candidate but did not appear to be an authorized committee of the candidate.
The Editor says...
It is a sad day in America when certain words cannot be used in public without authorization.
Today's America
is a landscape of legal abuses. Every week there are new revelations of the decrepit
and often barbarous state of the U.S. criminal-justice and prison systems. The most egregious
aspects of its dysfunction are not the absurdly severe sentences and world-record incarceration
levels, or the North Korean conviction rates, or the frequent murders of prisoners by correctional
officers in some of the state prisons, but the politically motivated antics of the prosecutors.
Obama
Admin. Deems Part of Wyoming Tribal Land, Putting Hospital in Legal Battle. Imagine
learning the town you live in suddenly becomes part of an Indian reservation, subjecting you to
tribal courts and laws rather than the U.S. Constitution. That's exactly what is happening in
Riverton, Wyoming. President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has thrown a hospital
in Riverton, Wyoming (population 11,000), into an expensive and exhausting battle to extricate itself
from the oversight of an American Indian tribal court. Riverton Memorial Hospital — a
non-Indian entity organized under the laws of the state of Delaware — was recently sued by a
member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe for medical malpractice in the Shoshone and Arapaho Tribal Court,
the court for the Wind River Indian Reservation.
A Scare a Week Keeps
the Populace Meek. [Scroll down] One after another, these scares appear,
command prime time on TV, control the headlines, make everyone crazy, and then disappear into
oblivion, without a trace. Like Sandy Hook. Like the anthrax scare. And so on.
They all have the same characteristics: It's something big and scary, something that will certainly
wipe us out, or will destroy America as we know her, the individual citizen is helpless before it, but the
government — and specifically the Federal government — can and must do something
about it, even if it means more destruction of our liberties. Destruction of liberties, of course,
only as the necessary price for gaining more security. The global warming scare was too general
and its threat was too far ahead in the future.
The
Civil Disobedience Charles Murray Wants Has Already Arrived. While Charles Murray has
been out promoting measured civil disobedience in an effort to restore individual liberty, thousands
of parents and children have been acting upon the same concept. This spring has seen an extraordinary
nationwide defiance movement aimed against standardized tests, thanks to Common Core. It could be, as
Murray hopes for, yet another "thin edge of a wedge that can work to wonderful effect" in service of
restoring self-government.
The Tip of the
Regulatory Iceberg. In 2014, the government issued 2,400 new regulations, including 27
major rules that may cost $80 billion or more annually. They range from forcing restaurants to list
the number of calories in food — even though past experiments have revealed that such
measures fail to change consumers' behavior — to reducing consumer choices and increasing
energy prices by imposing tighter energy efficiency mandates on the plugs that we use to charge
cellphones, laptops and even electric toothbrushes.
Where
America, Big Government Collide. The U.S. government has well more than 2,000
overlapping, under-performing, over-regulating, inefficient agencies, so removed from their original
purposes that no one knows how many agencies, offices and government corporations exist. These
are run by federal employees who, for the most part, are decent people but who probably couldn't
tell you if their job is duplicated seven times over by 20 agencies, or who exactly runs their
department, or to whom they ultimately answer — which is, essentially, you.
Because of the bureaucracy's size and power, scandals and negligence are endemic.
'Unfettered
Capitalism'? 175,000 Pages of Federal Regulations. Whenever a liberal like Paul Krugman talks
about the American system of "unfettered capitalism" I break out laughing. There are currently about
175,000 pages of federal regulations governing anything and everything about American business. In truth,
many regulations have become necessary over the decades. Worker safety has benefitted enormously and
death and injury rates on the job have plummeted in the last 50 years. Our air and water are
cleaner, consumer products are safer, and predatory capitalists have largely been sidelined. But
it goes without saying that agencies like the EPA are out of control, that the IRS has become even more
overbearing, and that the dizzying array of federal compliance rules make it possible to violate the
law without even knowing it.
Oyster
Farmer: 'We Are Terrified' Of The Gov't. The National Park Service used falsified data
to shut down an 80-year-old oyster company in Point Reyes, Calif, its owner claims. Drakes Bay
Oyster Company operated in Point Reyes for decades until National Park Service officials used falsified
data to force Kevin Lunny's family-run oyster farm to shut down. The experience has left its mark
on Lunny: "We Are Terrified," he told lawmakers during a hearing Thursday [4/23/2015]. "Let
me be clear, we did not fail as a business," Lunny said in his prepared testimony. "This was not
bad luck. Rather, the Park Service engaged in a taxpayer-funded enterprise of corruption to run
our small business out of Point Reyes."
EPA
Spends $84,000 to Study Churches That Preach Climate Change. The Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) is spending $84,000 to study how churches can be used to combat climate change. A taxpayer-funded
graduate fellowship at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor is examining 17 faith-based institutions that
have implemented "sustainability initiatives" in the hopes of developing workshops to teach pastors and other
religious leaders how to change the behaviors of their congregants.
Our
troubled FBI: What Americans need to know about today's Bureau. [Scroll down] It
was surprising, however, when the FBI was forced to admit last week that in the 1980s and 1990s, its
agents and lab technicians who examined hair samples testified falsely in 257 of 268 cases that
resulted in convictions. Of the convictions, 18 persons were sentenced to death, and of those,
12 have been executed. Some of these cases were federal, but most were state prosecutions in which
state and county prosecutors hired the FBI to perform lab tests and compare hair samples from a crime
scene with a defendant's known hair sample. The faulty lab work and erroneous testimony destroyed
the freedom of hundreds and the lives of 12, squandered millions in tax dollars, and impaired the
constitutional values we all embrace. You probably did not hear about the FBI cable guys or
the admitted 96-percent rate of false testimony in cases of conviction. That's because the
FBI skillfully diverted your attention.
Thirty
years in jail for a single hair: the FBI's 'mass disaster' of false conviction. In July 2013, the
FBI admitted that the foundations of what it called "hair comparison evidence" — a technique that its
agents had used in hundreds of criminal cases nationwide and spread through the training of state-based detectives
potentially through tens of thousands of other cases — were scientifically invalid.
Gov.
Walker Supporters Claim Police Raided Their Homes Over Politics. Megyn Kelly shared new information tonight
[4/23/2015] about a series of terrifying raids which were reportedly a form of political retribution against supporters of
Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI). She explained that a few of the people who were raided came forward and spoke to the
National Review about what they experienced. Kelly reported that Cindy Archer had a raid conducted on her home when
she was sound asleep one night. Archer claims that more than a dozen police officers were yelling and pounding on her
door. She said that police would not tell her why they were there as they ransacked her home, Kelly reported.
Wisconsin's
dirty prosecutors pull a Putin. When Vladimir Putin sends government thugs to raid
opposition offices, the world clucks its tongue. But, after all, Putin's a corrupt dictator, so what
do you expect? But in Wisconsin, Democratic prosecutors were raiding political opponents' homes and,
in a worse-than-Putin twist, they were making sure the world didn't even find out, by requiring their targets
to keep quiet. As David French notes in National Review, "As if the home invasion, the
appropriation of private property, and the verbal abuse weren't enough, next came ominous warnings.
Don't call your lawyer. Don't tell anyone about this raid. Not even your mother, your father,
or your closest friends. ... This was the on-the-ground reality of the so-called John Doe investigations,
expansive and secret criminal proceedings that directly targeted Wisconsin residents because of their
relationship to Scott Walker, their support for Act 10, and their advocacy of conservative reform."

This
is a Picture of Judge Barbara Kluka: Make Her Name a Household Word. Judges are
supposed to uphold the law, not rubberstamp the criminal suppression of political opponents.
Wisconsin's
Shame: 'I Thought it Was a Home Invasion'. Wisconsin, the cradle of the progressive
movement and home of the "Wisconsin idea" — the marriage of state governments and state
universities to govern through technocratic reform — was giving birth to a new progressive
idea, the use of law enforcement as a political instrument, as a weapon to attempt to undo election
results, shame opponents, and ruin lives. Most Americans have never heard of these raids, or
of the lengthy criminal investigations of Wisconsin conservatives. For good reason. Bound
by comprehensive secrecy orders, conservatives were left to suffer in silence as leaks ruined their
reputations, as neighbors, looking through windows and dismayed at the massive police presence, the
lights shining down on targets' homes, wondered, no doubt, What on earth did that family do?
FBI
overstated forensic hair matches in nearly all trials before 2000. The Justice
Department and FBI have formally acknowledged that nearly every examiner in an elite FBI forensic
unit gave flawed testimony in almost all trials in which they offered evidence against criminal
defendants over more than a two-decade period before 2000.
Can
We Apply Common Sense to the Police Shootings Debate? First, when wary, angry, and/or
frightened citizens interact with wary, angry, and/or frightened police — often at odd
hours and in moments of maximum stress — there will inevitably be a certain number of
both tragic mistakes and heinous crimes. Thus, it stands to reason that we should endeavor to
decrease — not increase — such interactions. Yet our regulatory state keeps
criminalizing more and more conduct. In two of the worst recent incidents, Eric Garner's choking
death and Walter's Scott's apparent execution, the victims were facing prosecution for violating petty
or stupid criminal laws — selling loose cigarettes in Garner's case and failing to pay child
support in Scott's case. Regarding child support, it's idiotic policy to lock deadbeat dads in
debtors' prisons. According to one study of South Carolina jails, one out of every eight inmates
was behind bars for falling behind on child support. Yet inmates are notoriously poor earners,
and stints in prison tend to exacerbate chronic unemployment.
Kick
Open the Doorway to Liberty: What Are We Waiting For? Everything this nation once
stood for is being turned on its head. Free speech, religious expression, privacy, due process,
bodily integrity, the sanctity of human life, the sovereignty of the family, individuality, the right
to self-defense, protection against police abuses, representative government, private property, human
rights — the very ideals that once made this nation great — have become casualties
of a politically correct, misguided, materialistic, amoral, militaristic culture. Indeed, I'm
having a hard time reconciling the America I know and love with the America being depicted in the daily
news headlines, where corruption, cronyism and abuse have taken precedence over the rights of the
citizenry and the rule of law.
When
everything is a crime. What began as a trickle has become a stream that could become a
cleansing torrent. Criticisms of the overcriminalization of American life might catalyze an
appreciation of the toll the administrative state is taking on the criminal justice system, and
liberty generally. In 2007, professor Tim Wu of Columbia Law School recounted a game played by
some prosecutors. One would name a famous person — "say, Mother Teresa or John Lennon" —
and other prosecutors would try to imagine "a plausible crime for which to indict him or her," usually a
felony plucked from "the incredibly broad yet obscure crimes that populate the U.S. Code like a kind of
jurisprudential minefield."
You
are probably breaking the law right now. Ignorance of the law, we are often told, is no excuse.
"Every man is presumed to know the law," says a long-established legal aphorism. And if you are charged with
a crime, you would be well advised to rely on some other defense than "I had no idea that was illegal." But
not everybody favors this state of affairs. While a century or two ago nearly all crime was traditional
common-law crime — rape, murder, theft and other things that pretty much everyone should know are
bad — nowadays we face all sorts of "regulatory crimes" in which intuitions of right and wrong play
no role, but for which the penalties are high.
Downsize
the Federal Government. Recent studies have found that economic growth rates decline
when relative government spending exceeds 26% of GDP, and the United States government current
spending is close to 40% of GDP. The Republican Party claims the core principle of limited
government, but has actively participated in this growth in both size and scope of the federal
government. [...] Government monopolies are notoriously inefficient. Revenues are collected
not just to pay for government services, but now departments redistribute funds between people,
between states, and even between countries. The problem is that government execution gets
worse the bigger it gets. The federal budget deficits have caused the national debt to skyrocket
over $18 trillion, with no end in sight.
Feds
Invade Native American Gathering, Grab Property, Threaten Jail. [Pastor Robert] Soto
is an ordained religious leader of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas. His tribe is recognized by
historians, sociologists, and the State of Texas — but not by the federal government.
Members of federally recognized tribes can possess feathers. But Soto cannot. Ironically, the
government issues permits to multiple institutions — including power companies — to
kill eagles but it will not allow Soto, or his fellow tribe members, to pick up feathers that
fall on the ground as the eagles molt naturally.
Time
to Tame Prosecutors Gone Wild. At CPAC next week, former majority leader of the House
Tom Delay, John Fund, and I, among others, will be speaking on a panel dubbed "Prosecutors Gone Wild."
The topic alone is a sad commentary on the current state of our criminal-justice system. As Ninth Circuit
judge Alex Kozinski has said, "there is an epidemic of prosecutorial misconduct abroad in the land." The
epidemic is devastating the lives of innocent people and breaking families; it is devouring our tax dollars;
and it has destroyed the public's faith in our justice system.
Politicians
went overboard with Snowmageddon precautions. When it comes to the Blizzard That
Wasn't, don't blame the models. Don't blame the meteorologists. Don't blame the media. Blame the
politicians — you know, those officials we elect to hire and who actually work for us. They showed
their true authoritarian colors Monday [1/26/2015] as they garbed themselves in emergency clothing and tightened
their jaws and announced they were going to shut us all down for our own good. They shut down highways and
public transportation not because they had to. They did it because they wanted to, for various reasons.
Too Many Laws,
Not Enough Sense. From a country with no federal laws until the first Congress was
seated, we are now swimming in a flood tide of legislation, as if Congress (and the states, and the
cities and the local municipalities; what we are really swimming in is too much government, at every
level) had nothing else to do but pass laws. [...] No wonder Harvey Silverglate, a crackerjack
defender of freedom, called his book Three Felonies a Day. That's how many crimes you
personally have already committed today, before you got out of bed, and for which you could go to
jail for a very long time.
Federal
Judge Accuses DOJ Attorneys of Defrauding The Court, Threatening Witness in Case of ATF
Whistleblower Jay Dobyns. As a refresher, Dobyns is the first law enforcement agent to
ever successfully infiltrate multiple layers of the notoriously dangerous and violent Hells Angels
motorcycle gang through "Operation Black Biscuit." After doing so and after his identity was
exposed, he received death threats against himself and his family. ATF did nothing to protect him.
When his house was burned to the ground at 3 a.m., ATF supervisors tried to frame him for the arson
after Dobyns blew the whistle and exposed supervisors had done nothing to address serious and
credible threats against his family.
'What's
the Big Deal With Selling Cigarettes?'. In the aftermath of the Eric Garner death in
New York City, there has been ongoing analysis criticizing the NYPD's response. As you might
recall, Garner was being arrested for selling loose cigarettes on a city sidewalk at the time of his
death. Many have questioned the need for the NYPD to even enforce such a minor law violation.
Others have called a law of this nature just another example of an overexpansion of government into the
lives of citizens. Beliefs like these ignore that every city has ordinances that exist for the
purpose of improving the quality of life for its citizens, business owners, and visitors. Cities
have panhandling laws that prevent people from being harassed by transient people who are begging for
money. NYC having an ordinance about selling loose cigarettes is just another example of a local
law that was passed to protect legitimate businesses and to prevent local "street dealers" from
harassing pedestrians. [...] Some people question whether the Broken Windows theory actually reduces
crime. But aggressive policing of minor crimes has a major impact on overall crime.
The Editor says...
Yes, I will concede and stipulate that cigarettes are nasty and cigarette smoke stinks, but nevertheless
tobacco a legal product. Informal offers to sell merchandise to passing pedestrians are fairly
harmless, and are even expected in certain locales, for example, the sidewalks of New York City,
or the State Fair of Texas. The broken window theory (about minor laws being enforced to prevent
more serious crimes) works under the presumption that all those minor laws are necessary and just.
Md.
parents investigated for letting kids walk alone. A couple being investigated for
child neglect because they allow their children to roam freely in their neighborhood says their
parenting style is unfairly under assault. In many ways, the Meitiv family is very traditional.
They eat dinner together every night, their kids have fixed bedtimes, do chores and have limits on their
sweets and screen time. But the parents are under investigation because they let their kids walk
around the neighborhood together, unaccompanied by an adult. Danielle and Sasha Meitiv say
the investigation is an invasion of their privacy and infringes on their rights as parents.
Federal
prosecutors who railroaded Ted Stevens escape punishment. Obamacare would not have
passed if Senator Ted Stevens had been re-elected in 2008. But two Alaska federal prosecutors,
assistant U.S. attorneys Joseph Bottini and James Goeke, charged him with accepting tens of thousands
of dollars of illegal contributions, and obtained a felony conviction on October 27, 2008,
just days before the election. The only problem: they had illegally withheld exculpatory
evidence from the defense, and the conviction was overturned. But the damage had been done,
and the longest-serving Republican in the Senate at the time had neen turned out of office, replaced
by Democrat Mark Begich, who provided the crucial 60th vote to pass Obamacare. Yesterday [1/13/2015],
it was revealed that the two prosecutors would escape punishment for their history-changing misconduct.
Lamenting Liberty Lost.
The Framers believed in the presumption of liberty, which declares that we are free to make personal
choices, and the government cannot interfere with our liberties unless we violate the rights of
others. Stated differently, the federal government cannot interfere with our personal choices by
writing any law it wants; it can only regulate behavior or spend money when the Constitution
authorizes it to do so. But for the past 100 years, the federal government has rejected the
Madisonian concept that it is limited to the 16 discrete powers the Constitution delegates to it, and
has claimed its powers are unlimited, subject only to the express prohibitions in the Constitution.
Congress'
Sneaky Tactic to Grab More Land for the Government. Congress has returned from the
mid-term elections and members are hammering out the details of the National Defense Authorization
Act. NDAA, which has passed for more than 50 years consecutively, provides policy guidance for
the U.S. defense budget. The importance of the NDAA to the defense budgeting process and its
traditional status as a "must-pass" piece of legislation makes it an inviting target for pet
projects and wasteful spending. Unfortunately, as this year's lame duck session winds down, some
lawmakers are trying to end-run the normal legislative process in a rushed, closed-door approach.
Also posted
under What's the rush?
The federal government can't stand to see an emerging technology fall into private hands without regulating or taxing it.
This
government rule could cripple commercial drone flight. One of America's most popular
consumer drones, the DJI Phantom 2, is surprisingly cheap, lightweight and easy to fly, and lots of
wedding photographers, farmers and real estate agents now depend on it for eyes in the sky. But
federal rules could soon require that, before flying their three-pound whirlybirds, they'll first
need pilot licenses — certification that can cost $10,000 and demand many hours flying
aircraft that control nothing like a little drone. The proposed Federal Aviation Administration
rules, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, could add a big new burden onto the first
generation of small businesses using drones to cheaply shoot video, map land or monitor crops.
How
Long Must A Long Train Of Abuses Be? I say we have been disposed to suffer long
enough. The Founders rose up over less than we are experiencing now. The Constitution has been
overturned in a Stealth Coup that took slightly over a century to achieve. The current Leftists in
Power And Control are merely firing the final shots into it's critically wounded corpse. How long
is long? You say a century is not long enough a train. Many of us say it is too long,
that it is so long we stand a very good chance of not being able to derail it. I say the situation
is insufferable, intolerable, that it is time to act.
Legislative tyranny
in Illinois. In 2011 the Democrats, led by House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate
President John Cullerton, created a monstrosity of a gerrymandered remap that shamed all but the
most hyper-partisan Dems. It paved the way for the Democrats to enjoy veto-proof majorities in both
chambers after the 2012 election. Two years later the Democrats still have veto-proof majorities
thanks to that redistricting assault on the people of Illinois. In the House, the Democrats did not
lose a single seat. On of the effects of the Madigan-Cullerton remap was that 70 of the 118 House
races were uncontested — nearly 60 percent of them.
America's
perpetual state of emergency. The United States is in a perpetual state of national
emergency. Thirty separate emergencies, in fact. [...] Those emergencies, declared by the
president by proclamation or executive order, give the president extraordinary powers —
to seize property, call up the National Guard and hire and fire military officers at will. "What
the National Emergencies Act does is like a toggle switch, and when the president flips it, he gets
new powers. It's like a magic wand. and there are very few constraints about how he turns
it on," said Kim Lane Scheppele, a professor at Princeton University.
Secret
Service watched this woman for months. The Secret Service monitored Brenda Allen and
her family for months. The surveillance came after an altercation with her neighbor, who worked for
former Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan. [Video clip]
Incompetence
Meets Mendacity in Obama Administration's Ebola Response. The shocking competence gap
and the cavernous honesty gap — brought to you by the "most transparent administration in
history" — make our heads spin as we careen from debacle to government-induced debacle.
In the tumult, we can miss the main point: Why do we have a federal government? Its purpose
is to safeguard the American people and pursue our interests in the world, not to solve the world's
problems on our dime and, occasionally, by using us as laboratory mice. As free people, we can try
to save the planet. The federal government, however, was not created to do it for us, much less to
coerce us into implausible "humanitarian" schemes that always manage to line some crony's pocket.
National interest is our government's only reliable compass, yet it has been discarded.
Department of Injustice.
[Scroll down] As 97 percent of the 99.5 percent found guilty are intimidated by the manipulation of the
plea-bargain system into pleading guilty to spare the state the irritation of a trial, the
defendants accept the abandonment of 147 of the 153 counts against them, plead guilty, and are
rehearsed in a catechetical process by the prosecutors to accuse themselves of cowardice, hypocrisy,
sociopathic turpitude, and often outright evil, and profess their gratitude for the sentence they
are about to receive. It smacks of nothing so much as the Stalin system of torturing the innocent
until, to spare their families, they proclaimed their guilt, fulminated an allocution of coruscating
self-loathing and self-righteously bellowed their demand to be executed immediately, and were led
away by Stalin's obliging jurists, and often dispatched, mercifully in the circumstances, in the
basement of the courthouse.
Government
Set Up A Fake Facebook Page In This Woman's Name. The Justice Department is claiming,
in a little-noticed court filing, that a federal agent had the right to impersonate a young woman
online by creating a Facebook page in her name without her knowledge. Government lawyers also are
defending the agent's right to scour the woman's seized cell phone and to post photographs —
including racy pictures of her and even one of her young son and niece — to the phony social
media account, which the agent was using to communicate with suspected criminals.
Dereliction of Duty
on a Grand Scale. [T]he people who run government are in control of gigantic,
unstoppable machines. Their actions have the force of law. They are just humans — but
with the whole power of the state behind them. This is a good reason to be very careful who we
have at the levers of power in government — and to try to keep the role of government as
small as possible. Power will be abused. So let's make sure it is out of the hands of a few willful
people — as in the people who started the recession or missed ISIS. Government is a
dangerous instrumentality. Sometimes needed, but always dangerous.
Mandatory
minimum sentencing: Injustice served? "We had tried calling the cops," said Lee Wollard. "We had
tried doing everything. Nothing worked. Nothing." After hearing 59-year-old Wollard's story, you
may think he did what any family man would do. Or, you may agree with a Florida jury and think he went too
far. But either way, you're likely to wonder: Does Wollard's punishment really fit the crime?
Government
Desperation Is Increasing. Even under normal conditions government fudges numbers to
support its actions and policies. Government always benefits from making conditions look better than
they are. A true understanding of what government does, as opposed to what it pretends to do, would
mean its end, at least in any form resembling its current size, configuration and responsibilities.
Allowing government to report its own performance is worse than allowing the fox in charge of the
chicken coop to report on the number and health of the chickens.
In
Maryland, a Soviet-Style Punishment for a Novelist. From the Dept. of Insane and
Dangerous Overreactions to Fictional Threats: A 23-year-old teacher at a Cambridge, Md. middle
school has been placed on leave and — in the words of a local news report —
"taken in for an emergency medical evaluation" for publishing, under a pseudonym, a novel about a
school shooting. The novelist, Patrick McLaw, an eighth-grade language-arts teacher at the Mace's
Lane Middle School, was placed on leave by the Dorchester County Board of Education, and is being
investigated by the Dorchester County Sheriff's Office, according to news reports from Maryland's
Eastern Shore. The novel, by the way, is set 900 years in the future.
Maryland's thought
police strike. A teacher in Cambridge, Maryland has been suspended from teaching,
banned from school property, had his home searched, and been taken in for emergency medical
evaluation because of a novel he wrote under a pseudonym in 2011, three years before he was hired.
"We are in a dangerous place when
prosecutors can identify the target first, and then try to find a crime."
Revealed:
Wisconsin John Doe investigation was full-blown anti-conservative fishing expedition.
The short story is that two separate proceedings were commenced under the auspices
of Democratic District Attorneys in order to try to take down Scott Walker. [...] The investigators
conducted a widespread fishing expedition through the otherwise private records of numerous
conservative activists, as described by M.D. Kittle of Wisconsin Reporter, who has followed the case
more closely than anyone[.]
Criminalizing Conservatism.
Newly unsealed federal court documents show that a crew of local prosecutors — Milwaukee
County District Attorney John Chisholm, a Democrat, his assistants, Bruce Landgraf and David Robles,
a figurehead special prosecutor named Francis Schmitz, and a contract investigator named Dean Nickel —
have exploited state law to seize "more or less all" the records of the Wisconsin Club for Growth and every other
conservative group in the state dating back to 2009 as part of a boundless investigation of their own wild hunches.
Despite their unhindered access to the complete inner workings of the conservative movement in Wisconsin, these prosecutors
have come up with nothing.
Westerners
fear monumental land grab by Obama administration. Utah officials are scrambling to
prevent the Obama administration from locking down thousands of acres of land in their backyard, as
federal officials consider up to a dozen possible national monument designations — all in
western states. The Antiquities Act gives U.S. presidents the authority to unilaterally declare
public lands as national monuments at the stroke of a pen, with no input from the public unless they
choose to seek it.
The
Rick Perry Indictment is Textbook Malicious Prosecution. Yes, for the past 16 years,
Texas voters have elected only Republicans to statewide office, and since 2002 the GOP has
controlled both houses of the state legislature, but the partisan divide in the Lone Star State is
sharp and highly polarized. In 2012, Mitt Romney trounced President Obama by 16 points statewide,
but over 40% of the Texas electorate is resolutely "Blue." There are pockets of liberal Democrats
throughout the state, mainly in the large cities of Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio, but Travis
County (encompassing Austin) is the epicenter of the Liberal Political Establishment in Texas, which
thrives on the flagship campus of the University of Texas, in the halls of the Legislature, and in
the ultra-liberal media organs based there: Texas Monthly, Texas Tribune, and the Austin
American-Statesman. Democrats control Travis County and the City of Austin, as thoroughly
as the GOP dominates statewide offices.
Ferguson
and the Changing Attitudes Towards Cops. Much like the TSA being an agency of teaching
sheeplike compliance (and guaranteed union jobs) — as opposed to the public mission of
safety — these demonstrations of government force and tactics are the part of the same
coercion. There is an unsettling commonality among all of this, the IRS, the militarized police
forces, the TSA, the BLM, ATF — and many conservatives are starting to connect the dots.
[...] Boaters, who tend to be overwhelmingly conservative, get boarded and harassed by these multiple
agencies on a routine basis. Sometimes the LEOs cannot handle these pricey toys and up destroying
private property.
Patrolmen Without Borders.
If I drive across a U.S. border, I expect to stop at a Border Patrol checkpoint. But imagine driving to the grocery
store, or Mom's house, well inside America, and being stopped by the Border Patrol. Many Americans don't have to
imagine it — it's how they live. Even as the federal government fails to control the southern border,
it sends the Border Patrol farther into the interior, where Americans complain that agents harass people who are already
U.S. citizens.
Report:
Feds Created 400 New Crimes Since 2008. A 2008 analysis by the law scholar John S.
Baker for the Heritage Foundation found that, between 2000 and 2007, the government added 452 crimes
to the books, indicating the government has increased the rate at which it created new crimes.
The 2008 report identified "at least 4,450 federal crimes." Adding in the CRS report tally, there
are now 4,889 federal crimes on the books. [...] For example, it is now a federal crime to conduct "high
seas navigation of an unflagged submersible or semi-submersible vessel."
$619
billion missed from federal transparency site. That's a problem, said Sen. Tom Carper,
D-Del., the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. "We live in
a world in which information drives decisions," Carper said. "And, given the budget constraints that
our government faces, we need reliable information on how and where our money is being spent." [...] The
report comes as the Obama administration begins to implement the Digital Accountability and Transparency
Act, which Congress passed last year to expand the amount of federal spending data available to the public.
$619
billion missing from federal transparency site. The irony is thick with this one. A
government audit has found that a website dedicated to making federal spending "more transparent" can't find
$619 billion. [...] No, this doesn't mean that $619 billion has been "lost," although some of it may
have, indeed, gone down a black hole. What it means is that we have incompetents running federal departments.
How
the Obama Administration Has Actually Broken the Law Hundreds of Times. Nearly half of
the Obama administration's 4,000 regulations since 2012 were illegally imposed by skipping the
required congressional review, the Washington Post reported — and there's not much
Congress or the courts can do about it. Under the 1996 Congressional Review Act, most federal
administrative rules are supposed to be reported to the House and Senate and to the Government
Accountability Office. The idea was to give Congress the opportunity to take action before the rule
goes into effect. That same law also barred such rules from judicial review. Curtis
Copeland, a retired Congressional Research Service staffer, examined how many rules issued since
2012 were not reported to Congress and the GAO. He found that out of about 4,000 rules, more
than 1,800 were not properly reported.
Obama
remains confident in CIA head John Brennan despite Senate spying. President Obama
remains confident in CIA Director John Brennan's leadership despite an independent investigation
that concluded that the agency had overreached its authority by spying on Senate staffers. White
House spokesman Josh Earnest said the findings had not diminished Brennan's standing in the administration.
When asked whether it damaged his authority or credibility in any way, Earnest said: "Absolutely not."
CIA
confesses: Yeah, we hacked the Senate's computers. In March, Sen. Dianne Feinstein
(D-CA) revealed that CIA Director John Brennan told her that the intelligence agency he leads had
improperly accessed Senate computers and secretly removed classified documents while the agency's
War on Terror interrogation tactics were under investigation. Feinstein alleged that Brennan told
her the CIA took that action because the agency believed the Senate might have accessed documents that
they were not authorized to see. In a statement, Brennan said the Senate Intelligence Committee
chairwoman had leveled "spurious allegations about CIA actions that were wholly unsupported by the
facts." While he confessed that the agency had made mistakes, the CIA director insisted that
there was no merit to the charge that the agency had spied on members of Congress.
Despite
Brennan's Lying and Usurpation of Law, President Obama Gives Strong Vote of Confidence In CIA
Director John Brennan. President Obama issued a strong defense of CIA Director John
Brennan on Friday in the face of revelations that his agency spied on congressional staffers'
computers. "I have full confidence in John Brennan," Obama said in a White House press conference.
A Government
Feared and Distrusted. [Scroll down] The proposed regulations are so onerous, they could literally make
farming of some areas impossible. But if you don't comply, the EPA could label you a "polluter" whose
wages should be garnished. Case example: the agency has threatened fines of up to $75,000 per
day on Wyoming homeowner Andy Johnson. He built a pond on his rural property. Think twice before
you build that koi pond in your own backyard — or collect rain water on your property, like Gary Harrington,
an Oregonian now serving a 30-day sentence for violating water regulations. An encyclopedia would be
required to list all the examples of executive and governmental agency overreach. But note the theme:
the examples above are violations of Americans trust by non-elected governmental agencies. You, Joe Average,
have no say in what is decreed. You are not represented when thousands of regulations are enacted.
13
Ways The American Police State Squanders Your Tax Dollars. Call it what you
will — taxes, penalties, fees, fines, regulations, tariffs, tickets, permits, surcharges,
tolls, asset forfeitures, foreclosures, etc. — but the only word that truly describes the
constant bilking of the American taxpayer by the government and its corporate partners is theft.
We're operating in a topsy-turvy Sherwood Forest where, instead of Robin Hood and his merry band of
thieves stealing from the rich to feed the poor, you've got the government and its merry band of
corporate thieves stealing from the poor to fatten the wallets of the rich. In this way, the poor
get poorer and the rich get richer. All the while, the American Dream of peace, prosperity, and
liberty has turned into a nightmare of endless wars, debilitating debt, and outright tyranny.
Land of the Free?
[John M. Horne (1813-186?)] would be horrified, even more so should he find out the Agriculture
Department has its own SWAT team. John would probably wonder why we even need a Department of
Agriculture. Seeing a country where the president's wife can dictate what your child eats for
lunch, and where local authorities can shut down your daughter's lemonade stand, John M. would not
be surprised that a law was passed obscenely incompatible with the land of the free. ObamaCare
was claimed to be within the government's power to tax, and is to be enforced by — why,
the IRS, of course. Most Americans didn't want it and still don't.
16 Reasons Why the United
States is Going to Hell in a Handbasket. I don't think any one problem or event will
cause the collapse of the American empire, but a number of separate but interlocking events and
issues. Another point to consider is that the U.S. government has the resources, and inside
information that would allow them to foretell when a major disaster or complete collapse is coming
and they have been prepping and building underground bunkers on a mass scale and despite the
fact our tax dollars are being used to build those bunkers we are not invited.
IRS
Gave FBI 1.1 Million Pages Of Taxpayer Data To Encourage Prosecution Of Conservatives. The
perversion of law enforcement agencies for political ends is starkly revealed by the fact that in 2010, as
part of its effort to stem the Tea Party movement, the IRS gave the FBI disks containing more than 1.1 million
pages of documents on Section 501 non-profits, so that the FBI could selectively prosecute conservative
groups and donors.
Illinois
warns parents: You are replaceable. Deborah Teixeira is in danger of literally being
fired by the state of Illinois from her job as Juliet's mother. [...] Her predicament comes from
the fact that she takes care of an adult daughter with brain damage. She provides Juliet with
round-the-clock care at her home thanks to subsidies from Illinois' Home Services Program. That's
common: Most of HSP's estimated 20,000 "caregivers" are just people like Teixeira watching over
severely disabled family members. The program also comes with strings attached, including a new
billing system that requires caregivers to call a phone number twice daily to literally clock in
and clock out. Forget to clock out and you are technically overbilling the state.
After
Revelations DOJ Collaborated With IRS on Targeting, Oversight Reiterates Calls For Special
Prosecutor. Earlier we learned that in 2010, the IRS sent a massive data base full of
confidential information belonging to [conservative] tax exempt groups to the FBI just before the
2010 midterm elections. The information was sent after collaboration and agreement between former
IRS head of tax exempt groups Lois Lerner and DOJ Election Crimes Branch official Richard Pilger
that tax exempt groups needed to be investigated. Fast forward to four years later and the
Department of Justice has been tapped to "investigate" the IRS targeting of conservative groups,
even though they were involved in the targeting themselves.
Privacy
takes a beating in the FBI's kangaroo court. Feds ran roughshod over Lavabit, forcing
it to shut down and proving the government is fighting to win — and fighting
dirty — in the privacy wars.
ATF Charged with Creating Fictitious Crimes.
We need more criminal law pushback like this, in more areas. Law enforcement agencies, especially
at the federal level, have gotten out of hand.
"We are witnessing a new federal government
that is a sort of rogue organism that exists for its own enhancement and is willing to do anything necessary to help those who help it."
—
Victor Davis Hanson
America's Last Straw. [In 1877,]
President James Garfield issued this warning: ["]Twenty years ago, the presence of the national government was not felt
by one citizen in a hundred. Except in paying his postage and receiving his mail, the citizen of the interior rarely
came in contact with the national authority. Now, he meets it in a thousand ways... [and] a vote in Congress may, any
day, seriously derange the business affairs of every person.["] Today, more than another hundred years later, Garfield
would be appalled to see that not only is our postal system bankrupt, but that outside of our mailboxes and in both our business
and personal affairs — we meet the serious derangement of national authority practically everywhere and in every
way imaginable.
Government
Will Control You Before It Controls Climate. Ultimately, it will not matter if people in government cynically
promote the theory that human activity is destroying the global climate as a means of taking control of your life, or if they
take control of your life because they sincerely believe human activity is destroying the global climate. Either way,
government will control your life. The National Climate Assessment the Obama administration released this week describes
in Sisyphean terms the task government faces in limiting carbon dioxide emissions, which the assessment says make up 84 percent
of the greenhouse gas emissions it holds guilty of artificially warming our planet.
The Editor says...
The global warming fad / hoax is all about
accumulating centralized government power through the use of frightening forecasts and rash pronouncements
of impending catastrophe "if we don't do something." Remember, the bigger
the rush, the greater the underlying deception.
The U.S. government will never be able to
control carbon dioxide emissions in China, which
shares the atmosphere with the rest of us, and even
a unified one-world government will never be able
to control carbon dioxide emissions from volcanos,
termites
and cows.
Who Owns
One-Third of American Land — And How It's Holding Us Back. Did you know that the federal government
owns nearly one-third of U.S. land? What are they doing with it, you might ask. And the answer is certainly not
making the most of it. In fact, true to form, the federal government is getting in the way of domestic energy and American
jobs. "Inaccessibility and unnecessary regulations inhibit economic growth in various parts of the country," says Heritage
expert Nicolas Loris, the Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow. He points to a recent study showing that "opening up offshore
areas for drilling in the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf — just one region where offshore drilling is possible but
not permitted — would create 280,000 jobs in that region alone." While U.S. oil production has gone gangbusters
in recent years, most of that production has been on privately owned land.
It is time to choose our side.
Today in America, there are an increasing number of men and women who see the ominous parallels between the
pre-Revolutionary War days and the present day. [...] Only those buried deep in denial or their own normalcy
bias refuse to see the increasing oppression against the citizens of America by their own government. Only
those who are completely clueless or complicit cannot see or vociferously deny that the clouds on the horizon
are not storm clouds, but the dust clouds of an approaching enemy selected and elected to retake our freedoms.
Only those who have been effectively brainwashed believe that those currently in power reflect the true will of the
people.
GOP
rep wants to cut funds for armed federal agencies. A Republican congressman wants to crack down on the
proliferation of armed law enforcement units within the federal government, on the heels of the standoff last month
between supporters of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and a federal land agency. Both sides of that standoff —
agents with the Bureau of Land Management, and states' rights protesters who streamed into Nevada — were armed,
leading the BLM to back down for fear of violence.
Bunkerville, the
New Bunker Hill: The Back Story. [Scroll down] I assembled this information because I, like many
others, have had it with an over-reaching, lying government. If nothing else, I wanted to show how the BLM has
too much power and when you see them go against a fellow citizen poised to shoot other Americans with guns and body
armor, it's time to take steps to back them out of the picture. I don't completely agree with Cliven Bundy not
paying his fees. 559 other Nevada ranchers paid their fees, but I do understand where he is coming from,
he predates all land management agencies. How is that one man who is developing 44,000 acres can use the system,
and Harry Reid to get a 10,000 acre tortoise habitat disband from his property and another is locked out of grazing
because of the tortoise. The Tortoise is just a vehicle that the BLM can use at their "discretion" and
interpretation of the BLM Regs. Americans are done with this.
Hydra-headed federal bureaucracy threatens American liberty.
Because humans are inclined to believe their ends are virtuous enough to justify immoral means, America's founders
designed a liberty-preserving system to thwart excessive government power. Their revolutionary principles
included limited government, popular consent and human equality, meaning no one — not a president,
congressman, IRS official or Bureau of Land Management agent — can be the ruler over another because the
government's power is citizen-derived. If this sounds quaint and obsolete, it's because the federal executive
branch bureaucracy has grown so huge and unaccountable.
The
soft despotism of regulation imposes high costs on Americans. Wayne Crews of the Competitive
Enterprise Institute and Alexis de Tocqueville, author of the classic Democracy in America, were born in
different times and places. But the French aristocrat and American think tanker have the measure of the
federal behemoth in the age of Obama. Writing in 1835, Tocqueville eloquently predicted how it would
function, while Crews today supplies in his annual compilation of federal rules and regulations, "10,000
Commandments," the hard numbers that describe the behemoths contemporary reach and costs.
True
the Vote founder to Fox: Five separate agencies came down on me out of nowhere. Conservative activist
Catherine Engelbrecht was on "Fox and Friends" Wednesday [4/16/2014] and said she has no doubt that there was a "collaborative
effort" by a number of federal agencies to try to silence her. The founder of "True the Vote" made the assertion in the
aftermath of last week's release of emails by U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chair of the House Oversight and Government
Reform Committee, that suggest U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., may have worked with the IRS to target Engelbrecht after
her organization applied for nonprofit status.
Regulator Without
Peer. Anyone wondering why the U.S. economy can't seem to grow at its usual pace should examine one
product category where production is booming: federal regulation. Washington set a new record in 2013 by issuing
final rules consuming 26,417 pages in the Federal Register. While plenty of government employees deserve
credit for this milestone, leadership matters. And by this measure President Obama has never been surpassed
in the Oval Office.
What Does the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Need with 96
Armed Agents? The proliferation of federal agencies with armed agents is one of the most worrisome
aspects of the growth in government. Just last summer the EPA carried out an armed raid on a mine in Alaska to
enforce the Clean Water Act — a bit of government intimidation that residents say was totally unnecessary. [...] And
who can forget the Gibson Guitar raid by armed agents of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The EPA, the
USFWS ...the Department of Education? It's getting ridiculous — and frightening.
Did
someone mention Gibson Guitar?
The Progressive
March to the Future is Destroying America. The progressive march to the future is destroying America. What
the Democrats and the progressives are doing behind the scenes is a more frightening and unjustified power grab than Putin's
on the Ukraine. [...] [I]n spite of the dysfunction of our House and Senate there is a more pervasive danger — and
it is the people who are behind the scenes — people who in the dead of night write laws and bills that no one
seems to know what [...] is in them. Or decisions that give up America's sovereignty to an organization
that has now changed what its initial purpose once was to an institution preparing for a one-world government, The United
Nations. So the freest, most stable nation in the world gives up the Internet to forces that could advance it being
stifled? Does this make sense?
ATF
Director: 'Wish I Had Better Answers' About ATF Agents Probing a Tea Party Conservative. B. Todd
Jones, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, couldn't tell Congress why his agents made
two visits to a tea party conservative in a 13-month period — but only after she requested tax-exempt status
for her conservative group, True the Vote. Catherine Engelbrecht had a Federal Firearms License (FFL) for
12 years. "And suddenly she applies for tax exempt status, and you're knocking on her door twice in
13 months," Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told Jones at a hearing on Wednesday. "Congressman, I wish I had
better answers," Jones said.
Under
attack: Depth of federal arms race should surprise, shock citizenry. In late February,
four federal agents carrying side arms with a drug-sniffing dog descended on the Taos Ski Valley in
what was called a "saturation patrol." Authorities were working on tips of possible drug selling
and impaired driving in the ski resort's parking lot and surrounding area. But the agents weren't
from the FBI, ATF, or even the Drug Enforcement Administration. Rather, the agents represented the
U.S. Forest Service. [...] It may come as a surprise to many U.S. taxpayers, but a slew of federal
agencies — some whose responsibilities seem to have little to do with combating
crime — carry active law enforcement operations.
U.S. confirms
warrantless searches of Americans. The Obama administration has conducted warrantless searches of Americans'
communications as part of the National Security Agency's surveillance operations that target foreigners located outside
of the U.S., the administration's top intelligence official confirmed in a letter to Congress disclosed Tuesday [4/1/2014].
Hate-Crime Laws and
the Expansion of Federal Power. Forty-five states and the District of Columbia provide additional penalties for crimes
that they classify as "hate crimes," over and above what would have been available if the same crime been committed with a different
motivation. In 2009, President Obama signed into law a federal hate-crimes statute that adds a third level of criminalization
for violent crimes that occur "because of" the victim's "actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender,
gender identity, disability, or sexual orientation." Actual hatred is not required. It is enough that there is a causal connection
between the crime and one of these grounds.
A glimpse
inside the dysfunctional federal bureaucracy. We are governed by an arrogant, dysfunctional, self-serving organization
that couldn't care less about us. The federal bureaucracy, which increasingly behaves as our overlords, regulating what we may
or may not do, prosecuting (or declining to prosecute) alleged wrongdoers, and spending roughly one dollar of every four in our
economy (up from one in five in just a few years) is out of control and dangerous. And it is only "extremists" like tea
partiers who propose to do anything about it.
If You Are
on the Right, 1st and 4th Amendments Don't Apply. In August, 2012 uniformed county police officers showed up at
Brandon Raub's front door. They introduced Raub to several unidentified agents of the Secret Service and FBI who spoke
with him concerning his anti-government Facebook posts. A few minutes later, according to the August, 2013 complaint,
one of the federal agents telephoned a Chesterfield County licensed psychotherapist to discuss the situation. The therapist,
without observing, meeting or evaluating Raub, recommended that he be taken into custody. Raub was subsequently handcuffed,
arrested and medically cleared before being driven to a psych hospital over a hundred miles away from his home.
The
Obama Administration's Unilateral Actions. Abusive, unlawful, and even potentially unconstitutional unilateral
action has been a hallmark of the Obama Administration. When Congress refuses to accede to President Barack Obama's
liberal policies, the Administration often ignores the restraints imposed upon the executive branch by the Constitution,
and when the Administration disagrees with duly enacted laws or finds it politically expedient not to enforce them, it waives
legal requirements. Under the U.S. constitutional system, Congress is charged with enacting the law, and the Executive is
charged with enforcing it. The individual liberties of all Americans are at stake when one branch usurps the role of another.
The Ten
Most Abusive Obama Executive Actions. President Obama has made liberal use of "executive action" throughout his
presidency, and pledged to make even more use of executive action in this year's State of the Union speech. He seems to
think that because Republicans don't want to implement his agenda, he can go around Congress. The Heritage Foundation is
out with a new report on President Obama's executive actions, titled "An Executive Unbound," finding that "abusive, unlawful,
even potentially unconstitutional unilateral action has been a hallmark of the Obama Administration."
Obama's Trifecta. In its violations of the First Amendment,
the Obama administration has consistently relied upon self-serving definitions of press, religion, and political speech. Holder justified violating
Rosen's press freedom on the grounds that he somehow wasn't acting as a legitimate member of the press. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen
Sebelius has arrogated to herself the right to determine what is and what is not a "religion." She claims the HHS mandate doesn't violate religious
freedom since groups that serve the public aren't religious according to her criteria. She declared at the time of the mandate's release that only
purely sectarian groups are deemed religious under Obamacare and thus worthy of an exemption. The Federal Election Commission plays the same game on
what constitutes political speech, defining the concept ever more narrowly to justify restrictions on ordinary participation.
Legal Kidnapping. Are
responsible and loving parents safe from having their children taken away from them by government agents? The Joneses had always
thought so, until recent events taught them otherwise.
Americans rising up
against government. [I]n response to widespread protests last week, the Department of Homeland Security canceled plans to build a
nationwide license plate database. Many local police departments already use license-plate readers that track every car as it passes traffic
signals or pole-mounted cameras. Specially equipped police cars even track cars parked on the street or even in driveways. The DHS put
out a bid request for a system that would have gone national, letting the federal government track millions of people's comings and goings just as
it tracks data about every phone call we make. But the proposal was suddenly withdrawn last week, with the unconvincing explanation that it
was all a mistake.
Michigan
Democrat Rep. Gary Peters threatens TV station licenses over Obamacare ad. While Julie Boonstra of Dexter, Mich., struggles to survive
leukemia, she now also has to cope with being called a liar by the Democrat who wants to be her next senator. And the campaign of Rep. Gary
Peters is also going after television stations airing ads in which her story is featured, threatening their licenses. The ad by Americans for
Prosperity features Boonstra talking about how her insurance was canceled under Obamacare and saying that Peters' decision to vote for the law
"jeopardized my health." The ads are airing in Michigan as Peters seeks the Democratic nomination to replace Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who
is not seeking re-election.
Mark
Levin: Obama Admin Using The Law Against Us Is The Definition Of Tyranny. The FCC, call it whatever you want, Barack Obama's
henchman, Barack Obama's comrades, there, that's right, all over the federal government have hijacked the institutions of government and are
now turning them on the people. Whether it's the EPA, or the Department of Justice, the Interior Department, NOAA, this, that or the
other, they're using the government, they are using a law against us. Which is the definition of tyranny.
Is Our Commander, Covert Or
Criminal? On January 1 an agreement between the United States and our most hostile enemy went into effect. This agreement was
secretly negotiated at secret meetings by a secret Presidential trip, and a secretive Secretary of State. This super secret agreement we were
told would bring peace in our time. [...] The only problem however is that there is now no way for "We The People" to know if our employee, one Barack
Hussein Obama, is telling the truth. And in our representative republic there is no way for our representatives — even ones legally
empowered to watch foreign affairs and national security specifically — to be able to know. Why? Because the President has the
text of the agreement — an agreement we are told is unclassified — being squirrelled away — and is off limits.
Atlanta
Mayor Defends Using Emergency Lane to Get to Interview. Atlanta's mayor is defending
his use of emergency lanes at the height of Tuesday's icy traffic jam so he could do an interview
at The Weather Channel's studios.
Big government does too much, badly.
Around the country there have been calls to raise the minimum wage, to impose strict regulations on our businesses and to forcibly adopt a health care
system that nationalizes one-sixth of our economy. The intended role of the federal government established by our Founding Fathers was to protect
the rights of all Americans. Nowhere in our Constitution is there a clause that mandates government to act as an employer, a health care provider
or a charity — nor should it. However, over the years the role of government has shifted from protecting rights to selectively
distributing them. This, in turn, has spawned a host of redistributionist policies that have been thrust upon the public as commandments.
Many people are beginning to wonder why they are being forced to pay for their neighbors.
What would Patrick Henry do with the NSA?
We are constantly informed that business cannot be trusted to regulate their public behavior, so government is called upon to manage the FDA, EPA,
ICC, USDA and dozens of other alphabet-soup agencies. We are told that even those who have taken oaths for their business activities, doctors
and nurses come to mind, are not to be trusted to play fair with the fees they charge for services, with the latest attempt to fight this alleged
threat being Obamacare. Heck, we are even told that the clergy and those who look to them for spiritual guidance are not to be entrusted with
the care of the poor any longer, thus the growing need for our vainglorious "safety net." Everywhere an American citizen looks, you will find
government, taxing, regulating, micromanaging, threatening and in some instances killing. All made legal and growing by what force? The
threat of penalties, fines, unaffordable legal defense and imprisonment.
Rein in HUD. Under our Constitution, a government
agency may not act beyond the authority given it by Congress. Indeed, as the Supreme Court has said, "an agency literally has no power
to act ... unless and until Congress confers power upon it." The principle is basic, but in a significant matter the Department of
Housing and Urban Development under President Obama has ignored it, to say no worse. Fortunately, a lawsuit now moving forward in the
nation's capital promises to compel the agency to quit its conspicuous overreaching.
Congress
Must Curb The 'Soft Tyranny' Of Bureaucrats. The late Sen. Eugene McCarthy, D-Minn., observed, "The only thing that saves us
from the bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty." He said this in 1979 when the
Code of Federal Regulations contained about 30,000 rules. Today, the federal government has more than 180,000 rules.
DOE Plugs Energy Rating For
Homes Similar To MPG Rating For Cars. The Energy Department on Tuesday [1/14/2014] is rolling out new, improved software to help
Americans measure the energy efficiency of their homes. DOE says its energy-scoring software — called the Home Energy Scoring
Tool — is like a vehicle's mile-per-gallon rating because it allows homeowners to compare the energy performance of their homes to
other homes nationwide. It also provides homeowners with suggestions for improving their homes' efficiency.
The Editor says...
First of all, it's never a good idea to compare your house to someone else's house. It only leads to pride and arrogance, or jealousy and envy.
All that aside, this is apparently the government's way of being "helpful" to home buyers that are too stupid to ask the right questions when shopping
for a house. It sounds harmless enough, but that's the way automobile gas mileage ratings got started, and now fuel efficiency standards are
mandatory — and constantly tightening.
Mike
Lee: Obama's 'Unelected Bureaucrats' Wrote 80,000 Pages of Rules in 2013. Friday [1/10/2014], Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) published a
photograph on his Facebook page of all the rules and regulations President Barack Obama's administration implemented throughout 2013. The
photo, a display of all the printed pages of the federal register, is 80,000 pages worth of regulations stacked in a filing cabinet.
Border Security as Oppressive as Ever. A constant barrage of stories of
abuse from U.S. Customs and Border Patrol have arisen in 2013. These did not only occur at the physical borders, but at the numerous domestic checkpoints that
appear all over U.S. roadways across the southwest. Up to 100 miles into the country, permanent roadblocks exist where travelers are asked by federal
agents to prove their citizenship and often subjected to searches and other harassment.
The Police State in Review, 2013. The foundation of an American police
state is already laid and making its existence known, while most of the country remains blissfully focused on sports, reality shows, establishment pseudo-news,
and other distractions. It would require an encyclopedia to cover all of the injustices, scandals, and brutality that took place in 2013. This list
is designed to illustrate certain trends and significant stories from the past year. If Americans don't fix their apathy and disengagement toward causes
that matter, we can expect these trends to continue toward their logical conclusions: an increasingly repressive police state dominating the lives people
inside these borders and beyond.
Happy New Year! Feds list 141 new
regulations in only three days. It's a new year and you know what that means — new regulations. The Obama administration has
wasted no time in writing them. The website Regulations.gov lists 141 regulations that have been posted by federal agencies in the last
three days alone. Of these regulations, 119 are "rulemaking," meaning they establish a new rule. Twenty-three are "non-rulemaking,"
meaning the regulations does not establish a new rule. The largest group of regulations have to do with energy and environmental issues, many
of them issued by the Environmental Protection Agency.
11 Nasty Trends That Will
Test America's Resilience. Last year was a challenging one for entrepreneurs and other productive Americans. No fewer than
13 new taxes were put into place. Big government now consumes one of every four dollars of our GDP and is getting bigger. Entering
2014, we face problems, including taxes and spending, that neither the White House nor Congress is addressing.
Showing How Government Fails.
The hyper-regulation by the federal government of nearly every aspect of commerce and industry through an ever-growing leviathan of
laws, regulations, judicial decisions, and executive actions has stunted and even crippled huge swaths of private enterprise in America.
Almost any small business can recount at least one horror story that cost our nation productive activity, reduced meaningful employment, and
closed off areas of potential growth in our economy. Many Americans, however, have generally been shown only the sunny side of the
federal government.
Uncle Sam's
New Year's Binge: Borrows $1,088 Per Household in 1 Day. Uncle Sam — AKA the federal government — went on a New Year's Eve
binge, adding a net of $125,202,709,546.99 to its total debt in just the one day of Dec. 31, 2013, according to the U.S. Treasury.
That equals approximately $1,088.60 for each of the 115,013,000 households the Census Bureau currently estimates there are in the United States.
40,000 new laws take effect in 2014.
In Illinois for example, teenagers will no longer get to use tanning beds without a doctor's note. If you live in Delaware, visit the
shark fin buffet while you can, a new law will make it illegal to own, sale, or distribute the controversial delicacy. And in California,
new laws take effect that will let students take part in school sports, or use bathrooms based on their gender identity, regardless of the
gender noted in their birth certificates.
State Dept Whistleblower's Emailed
Hacked, Deleted. The personal e-mail account of a State Department whistle-blower was hacked, and four years worth of
messages — some detailing alleged wrongdoing at the agency — were deleted, The [New York] Post has learned.
The computer attack targeted the Gmail account of Diplomatic Security Service criminal investigator Richard Higbie, his lawyer, Cary
Schulman, confirmed. "They took all of his e-mails and then they deleted them all," said Schulman. He said that he could
not prove who was responsible for the hack job, but said the attack was "sophisticated" and called the targeting of Higbie "alarming."
It's
a Very Merry Christmas for Washington's Parasite Class. Simply stated, government is a racket that benefits the DC
political elite by taking money from average people in America[.] I realize this is an unhappy topic to be discussing during
the Christmas season, but the American people need to realize that they are being raped and pillaged by the corrupt insiders that
control Washington and live fat and easy lives at our expense.
Illegal Immigration: History's Greatest
Wage Suppression Tool. The very notion that in today's day and age that borders cannot be secured is beyond contempt. Meanwhile, your
grandmother is getting cavity-searched by the TSA and yet another anchor baby is born in a U.S. hospital (which accounts for 8% of all births). The
average American knows this "look the other way" policy very well, with all of its repercussions, because he has been dealing with suppressed wages for
decades. This suppression has not only helped gut lower and middle-class Americans, it has also caused millions of Americans to rely on government
subsidies, i.e. welfare checks, section 8 housing, and EBT cards.
The Fed Is Operating Without Rules.
Basically, the Fed has become a central-planning agency that does what it wants when it wants, and will not be subject to the discipline of rule making.
Over time this can come to no good.
'Massive Seizure of Power': Climate
scientists, economists challenge EPA. A group of climate scientists and economists are challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's
authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and other stationary sources. These critics see a "massive seizure of power" by the
agency. The scientists and economists, including the former chair of the EPA's Science Advisory Committee, filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court,
arguing that the agency does not have the authority to permit greenhouse gases from stationary sources. According to the group, such a permitting scheme
is a "naked power grab of the most cynical sort."
Drowning In A Costly, Intrusive
Federal Regulatory Flood. The federal regulatory machine is coming not only for power plants, as the president promised while campaigning
in 2008. It also has its eye on controlling private property. Earlier this week, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which has a long
history of highlighting Washington's regulatory excess, said that during the first week of December, "95 new final regulations were published in
the Federal Register," which followed "77 new final rules" published the previous week. It's "the equivalent of a new regulation every
one hour and 46 minutes."
Politically motivated traffic are probably more common than anyone knows.
Christie
ally steps down in wake of George Washington Bridge scandal. Gov. Chris Christie's top appointee to the Port Authority of New York and
New Jersey resigned Friday [12/13/2013] amid questions over whether he ordered a traffic jam at the world's busiest bridge as political payback.
The Republican governor accepted the resignation of Bill Baroni, the agency's deputy executive director, effective immediately, and praised the former
state senator's four-year stint at the bi-state agency.
Annie
Dookhan's Falsified Lab Data: Symptom of a Corrupted System. Friday [12/6/2013], former Massachusetts chemist Annie Dookhan pleaded guilty to
all 27 counts of falsifying nearly 40,000 criminal drug cases, effectively upending the Massachusetts criminal justice system. Dookhan
admitted to filing false test results, mixing drug samples together, and lying under oath about her job qualifications. [...] Dookhan's "dry
labbing" is just one part of a structure that incentivizes people working in the criminal justice system to get convictions — not
truth — and put as many people in prison as possible without regard to their actual guilt.
BART Defends Cell Phone Shutdown.
San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit is defending its order last August to shut down commuters' cell phone service. BART's actions attracted a
considerable amount of negative attenion. Digital rights groups have spoken out against government agencies assuming the authority to shut down
wireless coverage. "BART is a government agency, and the First Amendment prevents the government from censoring communications. Also,
federal law — the Communications Act — outlaws both the government and carriers from interfering with wireless service," said
Rebecca Jeschke, spokesperson for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
EPA preparing to unleash
a deluge of new regulations. Happy holidays from the Obama administration. Federal agencies are currently working
on rolling out hundreds of environmental regulations, including major regulations that would limit emissions from power plants and
expand the agency's authority to bodies of water on private property. On Tuesday [11/26/2013], the White House released its
regulatory agenda for the fall of 2013. It lists hundreds of pending energy and environmental regulations being crafting by
executive branch agencies, including 134 regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency alone.
The Drift toward Despotism.
[Scroll down] But one notes that the Supreme Court has dramatically circumscribed Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable
search and seizure when it occurs at America's border, and post-9/11 the "border" has been redefined to mean anywhere within 100 miles
of the actual frontier. Many European countries are not 100 miles wide in their entirety. A hundred-mile buffer zone
from Belgium's northern border, for example, would be well south of the southern border and deep into France.
Father Fed Knows Best. The government
thinks you're stupid, or at least ignorant. [...] In Massachusetts, all kids in daycare are required by law to brush their teeth after lunch.
In Texas — Texas! — if you don't have an interior-design license, you can't call yourself an interior designer, lest some
unsuspecting consumer trust your opinion on throw-pillow placement without the backing of the state. Almost everywhere, Americans need a license
to open a business — sometimes even a lemonade stand — but in Milwaukee, you even need a license to go out of business.
Horror: Police force man to undergo invasive anal
operation. When New Mexico police stopped a local driver for committing a minor moving violation, they decided to check whether he was carrying
drugs in his anus. So they procured a warrant, drove him to two different hospitals, forced him to endure eight medical procedures — including
an invasive colonoscopy — and stuck him with the bill. No drugs were found.
Schweizer Says DC 'Just Like the Mob, Except
It's Legal'. Peter Schweizer argued that Washington's political establishment creates threatening bills to scare wealthy interests into making big
campaign donations and to hire favored lobbyists, similar to the mafia's tactic of requiring "protection money" on Friday [10/25/2013].
Ten Thousand Commandments 2013: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State. Total costs for Americans
to comply with federal regulations reached $1.806 trillion in 2012. For the first time, this amounts to more than half of total federal spending.
It is more than the GDPs of Canada or Mexico. This is the 20th anniversary of Ten Thousand Commandments. In the 20 years of publication,
81,883 final rules have been issued. That's more than 3,500 per year or about nine per day.
When Frogs Jump. [Scroll down] How far would today's American
ruling elite go to stamp out real and concerted resistance to their brazen violations of individual liberty? What steps would they not take to force
submission to, and compliance with, their socialized medicine, their compulsory schooling, their EPA violations of private property, and so on?
In short, is there a point of coercive incivility beyond which you are certain they would never step to enforce their anti-constitutional, anti-natural rights,
anti-rational plans?
Mission Creep: EPA Agents Enter Drug
War. A large-scale narcotics investigation and sentencing in Montana has revealed that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has
entered the enforcement of U.S. war on drugs. The EPA has full federal law enforcement capabilities, and their charter allows them to participate in the
investigation and prosecution of "criminal conduct that threatens people's health," according to the EPA's Criminal Investigation Division (EPA CID).
Gun Free Zones are Designed to Spread, Like Smallpox.
The ugly truth is that gun free zones are not about irrational dreams of safety. They are about power and control. The irrational spouting about safety
is just a way to get emotional support from those who do not think about the issue. Gun free zones are just another incremental way to move toward total control.
Documents: Congress Charges Secret Fee to Land Top
Committee Spots. Members of Congress must pay secret fees known as "party dues" to the Democratic and Republican parties to secure and maintain top committee
chairmanships and assignments, newly uncovered internal documents reveal. [...] The so-called "party dues" lawmakers must contribute for committee assignments are separate
and apart from the fundraising they conduct for their own campaigns. If lawmakers fail to make their tribute payment to their party, they can lose their place on a
powerful committee.
Feds try to eliminate housing for the
deaf — at complex built for hearing-impaired. A 2005 federal study found that the U.S. had virtually no affordable housing for the deaf.
So the federal government helped build Apache ASL Trails, a 75-unit apartment building in Tempe, Ariz., designed specifically for the deaf. Ninety-percent of the
units are currently occupied by deaf and deaf-blind seniors. But now, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development says Apache ASL Trails violates civil
rights law — because it shows a preference for the hearing-impaired.
Democrats and Media Do a Number on the American People.
No free people should tolerate the pervasiveness of federal government activity in our daily lives even if we benefit from it in some fashion.
It is a matter of human dignity and self-respect. And it was House Republican insistence on this very point that resulted in the shutdown.
Illegal use of DoD Communications Systems by Obama
Administration. The American Spectator has been provided with the text of a political message sent on Saturday evening, using
Department of Defense communications systems, on behalf of President Obama and Secretary of Defense Hagel. It is addressed to "all US government
employees" and further specified by the DoD sender to go to "all subordinate commands," in compliance with Hagel's call for "the widest possible
distribution."
Retaining
America's liberty requires an alarmed America. National finances, domestic and foreign policies are all askew. Government spends the
earnings of our yet-unborn great-grandchildren buying political support with corporate and individual welfare programs. The U.S. government stifles
the entrepreneurial spirit that made us prosperous, with over-regulation. It partners with terrorists abroad, yet calls any who oppose unconstitutional
tactics domestic terrorists. And everywhere you turn, our government makes more and more nitpicking rules regarding everyday behavior, with drastic
legal consequences for any who offend.
'Moral decay' and the rot of
paternalism. What is liberty when you can be forced by your government to spend endless hours toiling in the Kafka-esque maze of compliance and
kow-towing that is our federal government today? As businesses and individuals scurry to curry favor with their masters in Washington, D.C., the nation's
wealth is being absorbed into a bottomless drain of regulation and dictate. And what's scary is that this is the accepted norm. The Supreme Court
has joined with Congress and the president to rewrite the very rules which were intended to protect the people. Now the Constitution of the United States
of America is an instrument of the government, not a solemn vow of the people.
Woman who got 20 years for warning shot gets
new trial. A Florida appeals court is ordering a new trial for a woman sentenced to 20 years to prison after she fired a warning shot
in a wall during a dispute with her husband. The 1st District Court of Appeal ruled that a judge did not properly instruct the jury handling the
case of Marissa Alexander. But the appeals court did also state that the judge was right to block Alexander from using the state's "Stand Your
Ground" law as a way to defend her actions.
The Hypocrisy Of Congress's Gold-Plated Health
Care. As close observers of history and human nature, James Madison and the other Founders of the U.S. Constitution knew that the
equal and unbiased application of the law to all people, especially elected officials, is essential to freedom and justice and one of the primary
safeguards from authoritarianism and oppression by a ruling class. And so, referring to the members of Congress, James Madison wrote in
Federalist No. 57: "[T]hey can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as on the
great mass of the society." Today, elected officials need to be reminded of these truths.
E.P.A. is the New Gestapo.
Just recently, a task force including members of 10 state and federal law enforcement agencies descended on a gold mine in the
tiny town of Chicken[,] Alaska[,] with a population of 17 last month, in what locals described as a raid. "Imagine
coming up to your diggings, only to see agents swarming over it like ants, wearing full body armor, with jackets that say
"POLICE" emblazoned on them, and all packing side arms," gold miner C.R. Hammond told the Alaska Dispatch. [...] According to
the EPA The investigation was into possible violations of the Clean Water Act. The officers were part of the Alaska
Environmental Crimes Task Force and visited the outpost near the Canadian border during the third week of August to investigate
water discharges into rivers, streams, lakes and oceans. This is how the EPA handles an investigation, with rifles,
handguns and bullet proof vests?
It's the law: Washington state lawmakers
don't get speeding tickets. A spokesman for WSP says Washington lawmakers are constitutionally protected from receiving noncriminal traffic tickets
during a legislative session, as well as 15 days before.
America: Not Shining but Burning.
America is now a nation ruled — and that is the correct word — by a self-appointed elite of ignorant snobs and power-mad
degenerates to compete with the worst ruling castes of the civilized world. The U.S. federal government has, through the deliberate deteriorations
of a century, finally dispensed with all but the flimsiest pretense of the principles of limited government and the rule of law that virtually defined
America's historic political achievement.
Where is the Rule of Law? Maybe the new Rule of Law is now the
plain clothes police everywhere, who no longer serve and protect since we don't know who they are to ask for help in an emergency, they just
ticket us to death for speeding, or the drones hovering over quiet residential neighborhoods, or the EPA police surprising a few law-abiding
miners in Alaska, or the fully geared and assault ready police in the metro, the TSA molesting and irradiating us at airports, or the IRS
making sure that we pay all of our taxes, including the Affordable Care Act tax?
Stop privileges for
government officials. All over America, government officials enjoy privileges that ordinary citizens don't. Sometimes it
involves bearing arms, with special rules favoring police, politicians and even retired government employees. Sometimes it involves
freedom from traffic and parking tickets, like the special non-traceable license plates enjoyed by tens of thousands of California state
employees or similar immunities for Colorado legislators. Often it involves immunity from legal challenges, like the "qualified"
immunity to lawsuits enjoyed by most government officials, or the even-better "absolute immunity" enjoyed by judges and prosecutors.
NSA Staffers Have Spied on Lovers.
National Security Agency officers on several occasions have channeled their agency's enormous eavesdropping power to spy on love interests, U.S. officials said.
The practice isn't frequent — one official estimated a handful of cases in the last decade — but it's common enough to garner its own
spycraft label: LOVEINT.
NSA
employees spied on their lovers using eavesdropping programme. The employees even had a code name for the practice —
"Love-int" — meaning the gathering of intelligence on their partners. Dianne Feinstein, a senator who chairs the Senate intelligence
committee, said the NSA told her committee about a set of "isolated cases" that have occurred about once a year for the last 10 years. The
spying was not within the US, and was carried out when one of the lovers was abroad. One employee was disciplined for using the NSA's resources
to track a former spouse, the Associated Press said.
NSA analysts knowingly broke surveillance
rules. The National Security Agency acknowledged Friday that some of its analysts knowingly violated the agency's rules, after the
incidents were included in an inspector general report. "Over the past decade, very rare instances of willful violations of NSA's authorities
have been found, but none under FISA or the Patriot Act," the NSA said in a statement.
Washington's
Blooming Bureaucrats Make 1,000 Flowers Wither. A guerrilla gardener planted 1,000 flowers at the ugliest subway stop in the
capital. Instead of saying thanks, D.C. Metro authorities ripped the plants out to show him — and the public — who's boss.
The Government our American
Founders Warned Us About. The framers of the U.S Constitution were well aware of the historic trend of government. They knew
that ruling entities that endured over time evolved towards greater power, gradually increasing control over their nation's citizens. The
Constitution was designed in part to remedy this. The Founder's vision of a limited government was a remarkable innovation for its time
that was meant to maintain the rights of the individual citizen, and preserve the power of the individual states. Their concept had little
to do with left versus right, or liberal versus conservative. Rather, they were largely motivated by the creation of a republic that
would not descend into a state of tyranny — a fate that history seemed to show was in the end, inevitable.
Obama
announces extra $300 million in aid for Syrians, refugees. The U.S. is to give more than $300 million in additional
"life-saving humanitarian assistance" to Syrians caught up in the country's civil war, Barack Obama has announced, taking the total amount
given since the conflict began to nearly $815 million.
The Editor asks...
Can Mr. Obama generate $300 million dollars just by announcing it, and then spend it on whatever he pleases? What part of the
Constitution authorizes such a thing?
Fearless Fosdick at work.
The Obama administration and its well-meaning defenders, including several Republican members of Congress, argue that just because
the government can discover intimate details about everyone's life, beliefs, politics, sexual orientation, health, diseases and sexual
infidelities doesn't mean it would, with the click of a computer mouse, ever identify and mark this person for personal attention.
(We trust the IRS, don't we?) If the snoopery were as innocent as these defenders claim, the government wouldn't have gone to so
much trouble — in "the least most untruthful manner" — to hide what it was doing.
It's better to take our chances with the Muslim terrorists than to forfeit our liberty.
Are you Willing to Die for your
Freedom? [Scroll down] I'm willing to die for my freedom. I'm certainly willing to take the slightly-increased
risk of dying in a terrorist attack that ostensibly will result from the government not sifting my email and monitoring all my calls and
banking activity and who knows what else. At this point, I'm becoming convinced it's not worth it. We're groping children
and Korean War vets in airports as part of an expensive show of security. We're teaching our kids to put up with government
intrusion into our lives. On my most recent flight, I saw a father help his 5-year-old son remove his shoes and show him
where to put them, how to remove his belt, how to wait his turn, how to go through security and comply with routine government
searches. It's not worth the toll on our freedom and our veneration of freedom.
NSA's PRISM, the
IRS scandal: The U.S. Government gone wild. [Previous presidents] created massive government regulatory and administrative
bureaucracies — in fact, intelligence agencies — which demand information from businesses of all sizes to use against
them at will — EPA, OSHA, IRS, and a host of other alphabet agencies, great and small. The used these agencies and the
intelligence they gathered to torment, punish and destroy their enemies. Remember, intelligence is nothing more than information.
Intelligence gathering is information gathering. What better way to gather intelligence than through pervasive regulatory regimes?
The felonious fibbers. Thousands of
Americans are languishing in federal prisons for lying to federal officials. Federal officials themselves often get a pass when
they tell a whopper to Congress. It's a double standard that must end. The problem starts at the top with Attorney General
Eric H. Holder Jr.
A flawed federal law enforcement
agency? The federal government maintains a bewildering number of armed law enforcement agencies, including the 295 armed
Social Security special agents, for whom 174,000 .357 Sig 125 grain bonded jacketed hollow point bullets were recently put up
for bid. A much larger armed police force consists of about 2000 agents in the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security.
According to the New York Post, that police force is seriously compromised because numbers of people with hidden criminal backgrounds have
been hired. This makes them unable to participate in criminal prosecutions.
Government's Shocking Interference in
Rancher's Life. The 104-page opinion by U.S. District Court Judge Robert C. Jones on May 23 in Nevada tells a
sordid and infuriating tale of a two-decades-long conspiracy among federal employees of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) of the
Department of the Interior to deny the grazing rights of a Nevada ranching family, interfere with their water rights, and destroy
their cattle business by scaring away their customers.
It's Not
Government's Job To Require Paid Vacations. Rep. Alan Grayson, a Florida Democrat, has introduced the Paid Vacation Act.
It would require employers with more than 100 employees to provide workers with a week of paid leave every year. It's not the first
time Grayson has cranked out crackpot legislation that requires the government to act dictatorially toward private businesses. Four
years ago he came up with the same idea, inspired, he said, by a trip to Disney World.
Brooklyn
DA 'arrested' people and held them until they testified in 'private jail system'. Brooklyn's District Attorney has been accused
of using locked hotel rooms as 'private jails' to interrogate witnesses and pressure them into giving false testimony in court.
The office of Charles Hynes is said to have routinely held trial witnesses against their will, according to new court papers filed by
a lawyer representing a man suing for $150million for a wrongful murder conviction. In court papers, Joel Rudin said: 'Hynes's
office was running a private jail system where witnesses were illegally interrogated and forcibly detained indefinitely.'
The VanderSlooting of America. [Scroll down] But
what the massive abuse of the IRS illustrates is a tyranny of a different sort. A bloodless yet still quite decided tyranny. A tyranny of the
American Left designed not just to chill free speech — although that is a primary goal. What has evidenced itself in the Obama era is a tyranny
designed not just to silence dissent, but to deliberately, willfully damage if not ruin outright the reputations and businesses of Americans across
the land.
More
about the use of the IRS as a weapon.
Barack Obama's America.
Barack Obama's America is one where fishermen aren't allowed to catch red snapper but where the government can kill tens of thousands of
snapper by blowing up oil rigs that provide valuable habitat for Gulf sea life.
Why All of Us Should Mistrust the Government.
[Scroll down] The government rejects the natural law because it is an obstacle to its control over us. The natural law is divinely embedded in
our souls. It is manifested by the universal yearning for freedom and justice. It consists of areas of human behavior — thought,
expression, religion, self-defense, travel, acquisition and use of property, privacy, for example — in which our behavior is subject only to
the exercise of our free will and not the permission of our neighbors or regulation by the government. The natural law, properly understood, is a
restraint on the government.
Judge asks enviros for ideas to punish gas company. Apparently frustrated by
a U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down an $18 million penalty for a Texas natural gas firm, a federal judge is taking the unusual
step of asking the environmental community for suggestions on how to sentence the company in a way that will have "the broadest possible
impact."
Big Sis: Obama Admin Can Pick Which Laws to Enforce. During her testimony on
the "Gang of Eight" immigration bill before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday [4/23/2013], Department of Homeland Security
Secretary Janet Napolitano declared that she, President Barack Obama and other political officials at the top of this administration
have the authority to decide which laws to enforce, and which ones to ignore.
Napolitano:
Obama Regime can decide which laws to enforce. In a startling and candid admission, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano argued
to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday [4/23/2013] that regardless of oaths to uphold the law, the President and the executive branch can choose what laws are to be
enforced. Tensions rose as the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Napolitano over the enforcement, or lack thereof, of current U.S.
immigration policies.
Leave your vuvuzula in the car.
Liquids
banned from Obama's Ohio State speech despite past heat-related medical emergencies. President Barack Obama's speech at the Ohio
State University graduation ceremony Sunday will be on tight security lockdown, with graduating students subject to "airport-like security screening"
and a strict list of prohibited items for graduates and their relatives attending the event at Ohio Stadium (capacity: 102,329). Attendees
are prohibited from bringing liquids into the stadium, despite high temperatures.
Is this an excuse to get a sample of everyone's DNA?
Federal panel says everyone 15 to 65 should
have HIV test. Citing recent evidence that HIV infections are best managed when treated early, an influential panel of
medical experts has finalized its recommendation that all people ages 15 to 65 be screened for the virus that causes AIDS.
The recommendation from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force seeks to address one of the key challenges in the fight against HIV/AIDS:
The window during which patients respond best to treatment is also the time when symptoms of the disease are least noticeable.
U.S. Spends
$1.75 Trillion to Enforce Federal Regulations. It's a crazy system in which a bloated government meddles in areas
that it shouldn't. This is done via federal regulations that, of course, require manpower and money to enforce. This
costs U.S. taxpayers an astounding $1.75 trillion, an amount larger than all but eight of the world's economies, according to a U.S.
senator who is pushing for reform. It gets better; this means that more than 10% of the nation's economy is spent on trying
to satisfy rules issued by Washington bureaucrats [...]
A Property Rights Revolution for 2013. Martha Boneta
had a business license for her tiny farm store in scenic Paris, Virginia, yet she was threatened with fines of up to $5,000 per violation per day for selling organic
tea and wool products crafted from her rescued animals, and for hosting a birthday party for eight 10-year-old girls. Officials from Fauquier County using zoning
ordinances to bully Mrs. Boneta never obtained a warrant nor set foot on her property to gather actual evidence. Instead a county bureaucrat relied on unscrupulous,
unlawful methods to make these charges against Mrs. Boneta. Her store remains closed out of fear of further uncertain charges carrying even criminal penalties.
Could Martial
Law Be Right Around The Corner For Americans? Merely a week after military exercises featuring Blackhawk helicopters were
flown over the Miami skyline, the Florida Highway Patrol has informed the public that it will set up "vehicle inspection checkpoints" on
specific roadways in at least six Florida counties that will be established during daytime hours. State troopers will be requesting
drivers licenses and conducting a visual inspection of every third vehicle once the checkpoint has been established.
Americans to
Washington: Don't tread on me. Nearly two-fifths of Democrats (38 percent) say the government is a threat to them
personally, as do 45 percent of non-gun owners. Overall, the percentage of Americans who view the federal government
as a threat has increased from 36 percent in May 1995 to 53 percent today.
Guns and the Government. The Supreme Court
has ruled consistently and countless times that the "police power," that is, the power to regulate for health, safety, welfare and
morality, continues to be reposed in the states, and that there is no federal police power.
EPA execs use secret email addresses to skirt FOIA, suit alleges.
Environmental Protection Agency senior executives used secret email addresses to skirt freedom of information laws, a lawsuit by a free-market
think tank alleges. The Competitive Enterprise Institute filed a lawsuit against the EPA last week claiming senior executives at the
agency used secret email accounts to conduct public business, shielding their communications from the Freedom of Information Act.
The suit cites an internal EPA memo, first revealed in a 2008 Government Accountability Office, which describes secondary email accounts
known only to a "few EPA staff members, usually only high-level senior staff."
The TSA is flexing its muscles, just to see how much the public will tolerate.
TSA Lies About Bizarre "Freeze" Drill. The footage shows
travelers at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Arizona being caught up in what the TSA calls "Code Bravo," a suddenly announced drill whereby
passengers who have already passed through security are required to "freeze" on command. The You Tube user who uploaded the video commented, "I
suddenly found myself in a bunch of travelers who were being sharply told to "STAY RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE! DON'T MOVE!". A TSA employee was
pointing his blue-gloved hand at anyone who moved a muscle (including airport workers) and barking these orders. [...] TSA spokeswoman Kristin Lee
admitted to the New York Times that travelers are not mandated to obey the order to "freeze".
The Greyhound Station Gulag. No formal criminal charges were filed
against [Abdulrahman] Zeitoun. When he protested the denial of his due process rights and rudimentary decencies of living, he was told by the guards that
he was under the jurisdiction of FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) — which meant that he was somebody else's problem.
If it hadn't been for an encounter with a Christian missionary ministering to the prisoners — a man Zeitoun believes was sent in literal
answer to prayer — it's likely that he and at least one of his friends, a fellow Syrian-American, would still be prisoners of
the Department of Homeland Security.
Under Obama, 11,327 Pages of Federal
Regulations Added. Over the past three years, the bound edition of the Code of Federal Regulations has increased by
11,327 pages — a 7.4 percent increase from Jan. 1, 2009 to Dec. 31, 2011. In 2009, the increase
in the number of pages was the most over the last decade — 3.4 percent or 5,359 pages. Over the past decade, the
federal government has issued almost 38,000 new final rules, according to the draft of the 2011 annual report to Congress on federal
regulations by the Office of Management and Budget. That brought the total at the end of 2011 to 169,301 pages.
FAA
officials accused of pressuring staff to vote for Obama. A government accountability group is accusing supervisors at the
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of urging the agency's employees to vote for President Obama and other Democrats in November.
The Washington, D.C.-based Cause of Action, which identifies itself as nonpartisan, said Wednesday that FAA officials at a Seattle office
told employees that the agency's funding would be more secure if Obama defeats Mitt Romney to win a second term. The allegation, if
true, would be a violation of the Hatch Act, a federal law that prohibits government agencies from getting involved in partisan activities.
The Environmentalists' Police
and Welfare States. The story about the abuses by Fauquier County against Martha Boneta, the farmer, of pitchfork protest
fame, just gets creepier and creepier. [...] Martha, as you may have already read, was fined by Fauquier County, Virginia for selling
her farm produce and holding a birthday party for eight little girls. The Fauquier County board of zoning appeals ruled for the
county (surprise!), claiming that even though Martha had a business license, she should have gotten other more restrictive permits,
including one that requires farmers to divert water from their crops and livestock to their driveways during hot, dry spells, or else
face fines. Fauquier County also recently passed a winery ordinance that blatantly violates property rights and civil liberties.
It gives Fauquier zoning administrator Kimberley Johnson discretion to create penalties and to prohibit private personal gatherings.
DNA test jailed innocent man for murder. Scientists,
lawyers and politicians have raised new concerns over the quality of forensic evidence testing — so is the criminal justice
system too reliant on lab tests without realising their limitations?
Pitchfork
Protest Farmer Confronts Government Corruption and Retribution. American Thinker was the first to report about how Fauquier
County, Virginia attempted to fine farmer Martha Boneta for hosting a birthday party for eight 10-year-old girls without a special events permit.
She was also fined for selling her farm produce without a special administrative permit, even though she had a business license that allowed those
sales. As also reported here, Martha the farmer lost her appeal before the county's Board of Zoning Appeals. What has not been
reported is that Fauquier County, without explanation, refused to renew her business license just days before her appeal hearing.
The Separation of Medicine and State.
The federal government in general, and the Food and Drug Administration in particular, increasingly inject themselves into direct control of
every medical practice. The FDA is aggressively moving past its lock on the approval of every medication and all medical equipment.
It now seeks control of every procedure and treatment that your physician recommends.
The Man Is a Sneak. While publicly
professing ardent admiration for the free market, Obama and his myrmidons are busy behind the scenes using the regulatory power
of government to nudge its citizens to the land of the dependent and home of the drone. Social justice regulations are
smuggled in under banking regulations, under consumer protection regulations, under food and drug regulations, under commerce
regulations. ObamaCare is rife with social justice regulations.
Rule of law provides equal protection.
We live in perilous times. The president acts above the rule of law and fights his own wars. Congress acts below the rule of law by
letting the president do whatever he can get away with. And this summer, the Supreme Court rewrote the rule of law. What do we do
about it?
Congressman's
Anti-Big Government Rant Gets Standing Ovation On House Floor. Rep. Mike Kelly just gained a lot of new fans.
The Editor says...
The Mike Kelly video is well worth your time.
It's the Bureaucrats, Stupid. Once the very
foundational nature of this insidiousness is understood, everything else falls into place. Perhaps even in the minds of the precious
moderates and independents. It's the bureaucrats, stupid! Vote Obama in 2012, and you have cast your ballot for more rules and more
paperwork and more bureaucrats to answer to should you dare to try to carve out your little piece of the pie without government help.
Vote against Obama, and you are at least saying "no" to the Roanoke vision. Yes, bureaucrats, bureaucracies, red tape, endless and mindless
regulations are the real cancer that is sapping the freedom from not only our economy, but also our very lives.
SWAT and the Second Amendment. In a free society, a
society with a fundamental right to keep and bear arms, police officers believing they may shoot a citizen in his own home simply
because he is carrying a firearm cannot be tolerated. Officers must absolutely avoid putting citizens in situations where they
might be armed, or even pointing firearms in the direction of police officers banging on or breaking down their front doors. If
such misconduct is tolerated, as in the cases of Jose Guerena and Andrew Scott, the next knock on any citizen's door may be the last
they ever answer.
Issa:
DHS gives 'criminal illegal aliens' privacy rights even Americans don't have. Department of Homeland Security
officials (DHS) rejected an official request for information about illegal immigrants arrested and deported in California,
citing the privacy rights of the deportees, even though that information would be publicly available if the criminals were
American citizens. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., suggested that
officials under President Obama had blocked the information for political appointees.
Over-Regulation Is Pricey.
When EPA, FCC, and OSHA staffers go to work, they regulate. If instead they cruised Facebook, bought novels on Amazon, or surfed
Internet pornography (as SEC employees were caught doing), they would neglect their taxpayer-funded duties. So, these functionaries
occupy their desks and concoct fresh ways to enforce the 169,301-page U.S. Code of Federal Regulations. [...] Brigades of federal
busybodies perpetrate such nonsense — all of which springs, at least loosely, from laws enacted by congresses and presidents
of both parties, spanning decades.
Congress Tries to Slow Big-Government Takeover of Public Waters. Some in Congress
are standing up for anglers and against a Big-Government power grab that would restrict public access to our oceans, Great Lakes, and
even inland waters. In the latest move in this high-stakes chess game, the House National Resources Committee has asked the
Appropriations Committee to include language in each appropriations bill to prohibit funding for the National Ocean Policy (NOP).
What I Miss About America.
Here are just a few of the things I miss since America entered the golden age of Hope and Change in January 2009.
• Optimism
• Going for minutes, hours, even days, without worrying about what weird insanity the government
is dreaming up next
• Having money
• The Border Patrol
• Having a president whose background isn't more closely guarded than the formula for Coke
• Going on vacation without the TSA auditioning me for "Stella Does Dallas"
• Not feeling like I have to whisper, if I say something that's not completely, 100%
complimentary about our president
The Supreme Court
Again Upholds Your Right to Be Framed. In 2009, Elena Kagan, then-solicitor general, argued before the Supreme Court
that prior to trial, a defendant has no right not to be framed, because false evidence does no real harm until it is actually used
in court. " Fabrication Of Evidence During An Investigation Does Not, By Itself, Violate The Constitution" read one
of the subject headings of her brief. [...] How does this play out in the real world? The vast majority of criminal cases
never go to trial at all; they are settled with plea bargains.
5 Reasons America Is In Decline.
[#3] A Government That Is Far Too Large: The Founding Fathers were small government fanatics who didn't have an income tax and were deeply
suspicious of government power. That proves their wisdom because as government grows larger and more powerful, the people grow smaller, weaker,
and more dependent. Additionally, in order to take on its vast powers, the government has chosen to ignore the Constitution. Making an
honest attempt to adhere to the 10th Amendment [...] would probably invalidate half of the activities of the federal government.
The 'Crucify Them' Presidency. Al "Crucify Them" Armendariz
resigned from the Environmental Protection Agency this week, for the mistake of telling it like it is. All he leaves behind is an entire administration of
Al Armendarizes.
Medicare
slush fund shows Obama's abuse of power. President Obama regularly misuses executive power, often nakedly in the
service of his political interests. [...] More than 60 Republican congressmen last week sent a letter to the Internal Revenue
Service charging that Tea Party groups across the country were being "harassed" and "stonewalled" by the agency. Rep.
Tom McClintock described a group in his Northern California district that easily obtained nonprofit status from the state
government but got nowhere with the feds. The list of demands, as described by McClintock on the House floor, sounds
like political bullying: "The IRS demanded the names of every participant at every meeting held over the last two years,
transcripts of every speech given at those meetings, what positions they had taken on issues, the names of their volunteers
and donors, and copies of communications they had with elected officials, and on and on."
Is Big Brother's black box coming to your car?
MAP-21 clearly bears the fingerprints of our nanny-in-chief, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, but it passed the Senate last month by a strong bipartisan
vote, 74 to 22. The massive bill federalizes everything within sight of the feds' roving eye. So-called "open-container laws" would
become uniform under federal guidelines, as would heretofore state-enforced laws regulating treatment of repeat DUI offenders. Interlock ignition
devices would fall within Uncle Sam's grasp. The availability of electronic charging stations — to launch all those electronic cars no one
is buying — would be expanded. Perhaps most troubling, at least for anyone who harbors even the remotest interest in privacy, MAP-21 mandates
that within three years every single passenger vehicle in the country must be outfitted with a "vehicle event data recorder" — the proverbial
"black box."
Big Brother's Next Target: Your Car.
Many are quite concerned about Senate Bill 1813, a massive piece of legislation supposedly devoted to transportation issues. Besides
including a provision allowing the IRS the power to revoke passports belonging to those who are delinquent with tax debt in excess of $50,000, it
appears that the potential law may be used to measure the size of your carbon footprint each time you get behind the wheel.
Job Killers. The feds now have 160,000 pages
of rules. Does anyone read all that? I doubt it. (Members of Congress don't read the bills they vote on.) Do the
rules make life safer? No. A few new rules are useful, but most are not. Their sheer volume makes us less safe and less
free. In fact, the thick rulebooks help cheaters by giving them an indecipherable screen to hide behind. They also mislead
consumers by giving them the illusion of protection.
Woo-woo-woo! Ding-ding! Woo-woo-woo!
New tornado warnings
to pinpoint storm's severity. In a test that starts Monday [4/2/2012], five weather service offices in Kansas and Missouri will
use words such as "mass devastation," "unsurvivable" and "catastrophic" in a new kind of warning that's based on the severity of a
storm's expected impact.
The Editor says...
Since there are so many weather warnings on radio and TV, usually about storms in another county, the public has become annoyed and
desensitized by the alerts. So the government will now incorporate more shocking rhetoric in their warnings, so people will pay
attention — for a few years. After a while, the general public will blow off these warnings, too. It is
a lot like the government wanting to put graphic pictures on cigarette packages because nobody pays attention to the verbal
warnings any more. Bureaucrats hate to be ignored.
Over-regulated America. A Florida law requires
vending-machine labels to urge the public to file a report if the label is not there. The Federal Railroad
Administration insists that all trains must be painted with an "F" at the front, so you can tell which end is
which. Bureaucratic busybodies in Bethesda, Maryland, have shut down children's lemonade stands because
the enterprising young moppets did not have trading licences. The list goes hilariously on. But
red tape in America is no laughing matter.
The Welfare
State's War on Religious Liberty: The case for limited government is becoming increasingly inseparable
from the case for religious liberty. Yesterday, the New York Times published a lengthy article on the
battle between the Catholic Church and various arms of the leviathan welfare state. The church is battling Obama
administration requirements that Catholic schools and hospitals cover contraceptives in their health plans, battling
Obama administration decisions to freeze Catholics out of contracts to aid sex-trafficking victims, and battling the
state of Illinois over state requirements that Catholic charities place kids with same-sex couples. These fights
come after the Catholic church famously shut down its adoption services in Massachusetts rather than bow to state
demands that it place children in same-sex households.
DEA now laundering drug
money. Combating drug traffic requires the ability to track money. That is a given.
After all, even Al Capone could only be brought down by following the money. We now have several news outlets
reporting that the DEA has decided to be in the business of laundering the money for Mexican drug cartels.
Apparently, it is a new program and involves significant sums of money.
Eric
Holder's New Scandal: Money Laundering For Cartels. Just as Fast and Furious was allegedly intended
to track and interdict gun-trafficking into Mexico, this operation, detailed in a New York Times article Sunday,
is said to have as its purpose to follow how criminal organizations move their money, where they keep their assets
and, most important, who their leaders are. But the question once again arises: Have the feds interrupted
or aided the flow?
Congress and
Secrecy. Congress, which is charged and authorized by the Constitution to write the federal laws
and to decide how to spend the people's money and to keep public records of all its deliberations, has simply
declined to do so. In establishing the debt supercommittee — which consists of six representatives
and six senators — Congress is violating the Constitution by keeping its work and deliberations from you.
Obamaland:
American Mules Must Eat Certified Weed-Free Hay. In Montana's Finley Basin there are known tungsten
deposits. An Australian company wanted to bring revenue and jobs to the state by developing the resource.
While the property was successfully drilled and recognized by Union Carbide in the seventies, it is now about
200 yards inside a roadless study area. The Forest Service was willing to offer a conditional drilling
permit. Among the conditions were these requirements:
• The drill sites must be cleared using hand tools,
• The drilling equipment and fuel must be transported to the site by a team of pack mules,
• The mules must be fed certified weed-free hay, and
• Drill site and trail reclamation must be done using hand tools.
The company gave up. How can America remain competitive in a global marketplace when we are required to
use pick axes and mules? How does this help America's heavy equipment manufacturers like Caterpillar?
No wonder we are in trouble.
Obama's Creepy
Agency Creep. Why is the US Wildlife and Fisheries raiding Gibson Guitar, the SEC
examining hydraulic fracturing fluids, NASA seeking to build bridges with Muslims, and the
Department of Education attacking Rick Perry? ... Consider [also] that the EPA has strayed
into map-remaking with its new "navigable waters" standard, the IRS is Obamacare's bouncer,
the formerly domestic ATF now has the ability to instigate hostilities on foreign soil through
operations like Fast and Furious, and Health and Human Services is funding abortions.
HUD Scandals: The $65 billion
Department of Housing and Urban Development has been plagued by mismanagement and scandal in recent decades.
Numerous HUD secretaries have used their power to enrich themselves or to confer special benefits on people with
political and financial connections.
Many Failed
Efforts to Count Nation's Federal Criminal Laws. In 1982, while at the Justice Department,
[Ronald] Gainer oversaw what still stands as the most comprehensive attempt to tote up a number. The
effort came as part of a long and ultimately failed campaign to persuade Congress to revise the criminal
code, which by the 1980s was scattered among 50 titles and 23,000 pages ...
County Sheriff
Enjoys Fruits of Forfeitures. The sheriff's office in Douglas County, Neb., just finished a new
$4.2 million crime lab and police-dog center thanks to money seized from people driving by on Interstate 80.
That money is a small part of a large and controversial asset-forfeiture program known as "equitable sharing."
Federal Fever.
Most of the problems caused by politics and government in America today are caused by the
federalization of government power and by the unnatural elevation of the judiciary over the
elected branches of government.
Dallas cops
keep $2,000 found by honest teen. Dallas will keep $2,000 found by a teenager in a parking
lot last February. The money will go into the city's general fund — not back to Plano high
school student Ashley Donaldson, who found the cash in an envelope at the Pavillion Shopping Center in North
Dallas.
Should a
Speeding Ticket Require Forfeiting Your Smartphone Data? Whatever ever happened to the good
ol' days where getting pulled over just meant you would get a speeding ticket, or if you're lucky, just a
warning? Well, if it's up to the Michigan State Police, those days are not only long gone, but a
speeding ticket is now reason enough to harvest all the information possible on you, including all of your
e-mail, social networking, texting, personal photos, and virtually anything else you might have on your
cell phone, or in many cases, your smartphone.
A
nation choking on endless laws. Heading back to work this week, Americans were greeted not only by a new
year but also by a whole slew of new laws — 31,000 of them at the state level — covering everything
from guns to 100-watt light bulbs to, of course, "health care." As usual, most of these laws tell us what we can't
do: texting while driving (duh), cyberbullying and smoking in bars. In the near future, everyone will be a
criminal for at least 15 minutes, whether they know it or not.
Michigan
cops imposing a digital police state. Michigan State Police are accused of stealing driver's cell
phone data on routine traffic stops. Michigan has become a digital police state. And if people in
Michigan just stand by and let this digital totalitarian [nonsense] continue, it will probably come to your
state too. We are a nation of copycats after all, governments in the United States like to take other
people's ideas to control people and make them their own.
Should
Cops Be Allowed to Scan Your Phone During a Traffic Stop? According to an American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) letter to the director of the Michigan State Police on April 13, that department
has several forensic cellphone analyzers deployed in the field. Forensic analyzers are routinely used
in police investigations to recover data from computers and other digital devices. Lately, cellphones
have become valuable sources of evidence for police, since one phone can include almost all of an individual's
private communications (SMS, recently dialed numbers, email, Facebook and Twitter posts) as well as location
data from the device's GPS unit.
Bill Would Let Only Licensed
Barbers Use Barber Poles. As North Carolina lawmakers grapple with closing an estimated
$2.4 billion budget deficit, four-term Sen. Doug Berger, D-Franklin, has introduced a bill making it
illegal for anyone who is not a registered barber to use or display a barber pole. Berger said he
introduced the bill because his barber told him the legislation was needed.
Drug-sniffing
dogs in traffic stops often wrong. Drug-sniffing dogs can give police probable cause to root through
cars by the roadside, but state data show the dogs have been wrong more often than they have been right about
whether vehicles contain drugs or paraphernalia. The dogs are trained to dig or sit when they smell drugs,
which triggers automobile searches. But a [Chicago] Tribune analysis of three years of data for suburban
departments found that only 44 percent of those alerts by the dogs led to the discovery of drugs or
paraphernalia. For Hispanic drivers, the success rate was just 27 percent.
TSA 'Strip and Grope':
Meet the Fourth Amendment. [Scroll down] Do these sorts of things violate our rights to be
secure in our persons against unreasonable searches? No act of Congress gave TSA agents the power to do
these things; the Congress delegated various powers to the TSA and the TSA developed the procedures, evidently
with no little or no adult supervision and even less consideration given to the Fourth Amendment. It appears
that substantial discretion is left to low-level TSA employees in deciding what is "reasonable" — substantially
more than is left to more "ordinary" and often better-trained law enforcement officers in deciding whether there
is reasonable cause to think that a crime has been or is being committed.
More
about the TSA's abusive and invasive searches.
Vermont
Had No License to Censor Vanity Plates. Shawn Byrne applied to the Vermont DMV for the tag
"JN36TN," a creative reference to the popular Bible verse, John 3:16. But Vermont denied his
request, citing a state law prohibiting vanity plates that reference religion or deity. On appeal,
after the Vermont District Court ruled against Byrne, the 2nd Circuit [Court of Appeals] recognized that
even a seven-letter long vanity license plate provides a place for the citizens of Vermont to express their
opinions. Since other citizens were permitted to express a variety of messages on their vanity plates,
Byrne could not be denied from expressing his message simply because it was religious.
Are We Free? We are required
to have a social security number as individuals or a taxpayer identification number as a business. We
need a license to operate a business, get married, drive a car, hold a rally in a park, etc. We ask
permission from the building and zoning department to build a house or change the house we have. We get
fined if we do not wear a seatbelt. We pay taxes for just about everything we do. The government
controls the airwaves, the waterways, the sky and highways. They tell us where we are allowed to go in
the national forests and parks. We are charged fees to use public lands. We are prohibited from
using our own land if some rare insect is found there. Our churches ask the IRS for permission to operate
with tax favors. Our leaders tell us what we can and cannot say. The first two of the Bill of Rights
have been trampled at every opportunity. This list could go on and on, but you get the message.
We are controlled from cradle to grave.
Obama's Torrent of New Regulation. The
burden of regulation on Americans increased at an alarming rate in fiscal year 2010. Based on data from the
Government Accountability Office, an unprecedented 43 major new regulations were imposed by Washington.
And based on reports from government regulators themselves, the total cost of these rules topped $26.5 billion,
far more than any other year for which records are available. These costs will affect Americans in many ways,
raising the price of the cars they buy and the food they eat, while destroying an untold number of jobs.
Government: No. 1
job destroyer. Taken as a whole, the Small Business Administration estimates that total federal
regulatory costs in America amount to $1.75 trillion annually — a number that dwarfs the federal
government's entire discretionary budget for 2011 and exceeds Canada's gross domestic product. The
cost of compliance is stunning, and it speaks to the heart of the employment issue in manufacturing and
every sector of our economy. It's clear that to create more jobs, government at the federal and state
levels must change course and embrace policies that drive down the cost of doing business in America.
What about the SBA itself?
Terminating the Small Business Administration.
The Small Business Administration (SBA) was created by the Small Business Act of 1953. The primary purpose
of the SBA is to encourage lending to small businesses through government loan guarantees. ... More than 99.7 percent
of all businesses in the United States are considered "small" by the SBA. The Congressional Research Service
calculates that these businesses account for about half of the nation's gross domestic product and employment.
This is an original
compilation, Copyright © 2013 by Andrew K. Dart
The Death of Government.
Government has gotten a bad name among conservatives. There is far too much government in our lives.
Government regulates the light bulbs we can use, the process of hiring employees, the licenses which businesses
need to operate, and, of course, the mammoth monster of public debt and taxes which have reached such surreal
levels that each American — man, woman, senior citizen, and infant — owes a
mind-numbing $44,000 of federal debt.
The Renewable Electricity
Standard Con. On November 2, many voters expressed their displeasure with the 111th Congress and
its efforts to control personal lives by passing massive legislation few members of Congress bothered to read, much
less understand. Some of these bills have future costs which are now coming to light. By its actions, the
111th Congress abrogated a basic principle of representative democracy: that legislation be freely and openly
discussed so that the public has the opportunity to understand its consequences.
Barack and the Bureaucracy.
Bureaucracy is liberalism's strong right arm. Liberalism would not exist as it does today without
it — it would have nothing of the reach or durability that it now possesses. Government
bureaucracy forms a kind of shadow universe, in which each human activity has its department or agency to
oversee and manipulate it — a massive structure established over decades, with no real purpose
but to perpetuate itself.
[Emphasis added.]
Americans
for Limited Government prepares for potential FOIA lawsuit against Department of Education.
Americans for Limited Government filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Department on Education
on September 2 for the release of internal e-mails in which Education Secretary Arne Duncan and his
senior staff purportedly either encouraged or required non-partisan career-employees of the Education
Department to attend Al Sharpton's National Action Network rally on August 28, a rally touted by
Sharpton as an anti-Glenn Beck event.
Authorities make changes
after first responders watch man drown. Alameda, California, has immediately changed its policies
after first responders watched a man drown in San Francisco Bay and did nothing to rescue him.
Is it a public service or a protection racket?
No pay, no spray: Firefighters let home burn.
Firefighters in rural Tennessee let a home burn to the ground last week because the homeowner hadn't paid a $75 fee.
Gene Cranick of Obion County and his family lost all of their possessions in the Sept. 29 fire, along with
three dogs and a cat.
Cop
pleads guilty to hitting man in face with baton in unprovoked attack. A cop pleaded guilty
Friday [6/3/2011] to cracking a man in the face with his baton during an unprovoked attack in the Bronx.
Officer Marc Rios admitted to the March 30, 2009, assault that left victim John Roperto, 34, with broken bones
in his cheek and nose.
Video
Shows Ohio Cop Grow Irate During Arrest. The June 8, 2011 video, which was obtained by a
gun rights group, shows a Canton police officer grow irate after he indicates that the driver of a stopped
vehicle waited too long to inform him of his concealed gun, even though he had a proper permit to carry it.
"I could blast you right in the mouth," the officer said. "I am so close to caving in your [expletive]
head."
Video
gets Canton police officer in trouble on the job. A Canton police officer is off the job
and on administrative leave. The organization called Ohioans for Concealed Carry posted a dash cam
video of the officer's verbal altercation with a driver.
The Editor says...
The only surprise in this story is that the dash-cam video didn't get "accidentally" deleted.
House Democrats Pass Bill to Grill School Children
about Sexual Preference. At the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee hearing last Thursday
[9/16/2010], Democrats passed a bill to require federal health officials to question anyone seeking services
from Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) community health centers or other programs about their
sexual orientation and "gender identity." Introduced by Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), H.R. 6109
requires HHS to obtain, retain and analyze sexual identity information from patients who seek healthcare,
including children.
California's Man-Made Drought.
On a springtime drive through the Central Valley, it's hard not to notice how federal and state governments
are hell-bent on destroying the state's top export — almonds — and everything else in
the nation's most productive farmland. Instead of pink blossoms and green shoots along Highway 5 in
April, vast spans from Bakersfield to Fresno sit bone-dry. Brown grass, dead orchards and lifeless
grapevine skeletons stretch for miles for lack of water.
The Fine Pursuit of Exposing
Corruption. In a disturbing case of politically motivated retaliation, prominent Beverly Hills attorney
Dr. Richard Fine has been incarcerated in coercive solitary confinement for close to fourteen months at the Los Angeles
County Men's Jail. That confinement will continue under a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision. ... Dr. Fine's plight
demonstrates the grim fate of those who come forward in good faith to expose malfeasance, public or private.
Bailout Bill Would Require Banks to Track and Report Personal Checking
Accounts to Feds. It's amazing to watch the civil libertarians hide when Democrats propose the
most sweeping intrusions of privacy in generations. In addition to the litany of bad policies contained
in the Dodd Financial Reform bill is this nugget on pages 1039-1040. In short, it extends government
reach to every deposit account of every citizen.
FCC Lets Hollywood Turn Off Your Output
Jacks. Hollywood will soon have the power to remotely disable the analog outputs on your set-top
box, under a decision by federal regulators on Friday [5/7/2010] intended to prevent home recording of new
movie releases. The move by the Federal Communications Commission grants cable and satellite providers
the power to block consumers from viewing just-released movies in an analog format through a process known as
Selectable Output Control.
The Editor says...
Digital television and software-controlled receivers are some of the most powerful tools ever put in
the hands of Big Brother. If the government can turn output jacks on and off, it can also take
control of the channel selection and the power switch, just like the telescreens
in 1984.
More
about The Technology and Politics of Broadcasting.
The Fossilization of
America. [Scroll down] Bureaucrats gain control of government programs by feeding on ideals.
No doubt the program I was involved in began, as most do, as an attempt to reflect the sincere ideals of the American
public. However, when bureaucrats implement programs, ideals are their first victims. ... This self-preservation
ethic leads to increasing organizational size and a corresponding growth in government. The larger the
organization, the less likely it is that the original ideals generating programs will be attained. In fact,
attaining these ideals would be counterproductive as this would result in the termination of the program.
Organizational inertia is the ultimate result and the actual goal of all bureaucrats.
The NoVa Police Blackout.
The Fairfax County Police Department — along with the neighboring municipal police departments of
Arlington and Alexandria — are among the most secretive, least transparent law enforcement agencies
in the country. And local political leaders don't seem particularly concerned about it.
Police Chief Beats the [Heck] Out of Defenseless
Old Woman. Interestingly in order to justify his abuses the police officer claimed it was all done
because she was being arrested. And yet, according to the new acting Police Chief Randy Liles, "There is
no arrest or incident report on file at the department." Despite it all, Liles assures us once Ford's
unrelated leave of absence is over "he'll be reinstated."
84-year-old
vet suffers broken neck after police takedown. An elderly man is in critical condition after
being thrown to the ground by a police officer. It happened Saturday night [9/18/2010] near North Orange
Avenue after police say Daniel Daley put his hands on the cop. The World War II veteran is out of
surgery. He suffered an injury doctors at Florida Hospital say only about 10 percent of people are
lucky enough to survive.
Government Is the
Biggest Lawbreaker. Measured just by the number of victims, there is no close second place
to government as the biggest lawbreaker. Measured in terms of impact, government lawbreaking is
disabling our entire society. When an individual or collection of individuals (such as a business)
violates the law, there are victims who are harmed directly, and the law provides remedies. ... When
government breaks the law, not just individuals, but entire industries are often the direct victims.
Debt's All,
Folks. Federal programs grow like Paul Bunyan and live far beyond their usefulness.
There is simply no incentive to cut programs or staff, which would signal loss of power and prestige.
Government managers face no profit motive or expectant stockholders. Businesses and households cut back
if they overspend. The government just comes up with more ways to tax us, and in increasingly
sneaky fashion. Have you looked at your phone bill lately?
Why Fear Big Government?
[Scroll down] On the more mundane level, this week I saw the following examples of government exemption.
A local police car randomly did a running stop at a 4-way intersection (should I have called 911?); a city bus
driver (very common) cell phoning against California law (report him to the cop running the intersection?); a
city garbage truck spewing trash out its top as it sped down Freeway 41 (call his cousins at the state EPA?).
We are all routinely pulled over for any of the above infractions. But the larger the government, the
more its power, and so the more its employees feel that they are royal and exempt from enforcement. In
other words, big government creates millions who feel the law does not pertain to themselves. Ask Tom Daschle,
Duke Cunningham, Chris Dodd, or Timothy Geithner. The result is an increasingly lawless society.
Hundreds
of regulatory bodies under scrutiny by N.J. Gov. Christie. Governor Christie has set his sights
on the hundreds of regulatory boards whose jurisdiction is scattered throughout the state. They run
airports and regulate charity bingo. They borrow money to build schools and try to ban bikini waxes.
They provide "soft landings" — complete with fat salaries and pensions — to allies of the
politically powerful. And they spend billions of public dollars every year.
Homeland Security Collected Information on Wisconsin
Abortion, Pro-Life Activists. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security conducted a threat
assessment of local pro- and anti-abortion rights activists before an expected rally last year, even though
they did not pose a threat to national security.
The Forced March to Mediocrity.
The perverted, and yes, un-American, pieces of legislation oozing their way through the halls of Congress over
the past few years have taken advantage of our "lack of duty" to govern ourselves. We now find ourselves
in a predicament that we have been warned of countless times, over decades, generations, and centuries... no
longer are Americans a self-governed citizenry, we are virtually dictated to by that which we are supposed to
control.
Happy Upside-down Day, America. The
dream of limited government, personal freedom and liberty, rugged individualism, and self-sufficiency that our
forefathers fought and died for is rapidly disappearing in 2009. It is once again a world turned upside
down. Our federal government is turning into the very type of heavy-handed, unaccountable, and disrespectful
government our forefathers despised, fought against, and warned us to avoid.
Public service or self-service? In a
free market, as Forbes magazine says, your reward is a function of how much you contribute to the economy,
but in a regulated market it's how much you contribute to politicians. Sound familiar? It should,
especially to Californians. In New York, it is the reason a taxi cab license is worth $600,000 (because
of fares rigged by paid-off politicians). In California, the cost of a vast range of services gets skewed
by high pay and benefits for public employees.
Ending Corruption
in Washington. [Scroll down slowly] The only way to get rid of such corruption is to
deprive Congress of its vast regulatory powers. There is truly no reason why politicians should
superintend any portion of the private sphere. Finance, health care, energy, housing, farming,
and all the rest should be left wholly to the market, since the market invariably delivers goods and
services in the most economical and cost-efficient manner. Every time politicians decide to
regulate, they only make matters worse.
More government
won't work. Government is bigger than ever and controls more aspects of American life
than at any time in U.S. history. Last year, the federal government ate $3.52 trillion out
of a $13.2 trillion economy. ... A basic problem with a future dominated by ever-expanding government
is that bureaucracies are hobbled by waste, fraud and abuse. Government simply does not work
well. Freedom works, but the more government that exists, the less freedom we have.
Why
Government Agencies Take on a Life of Their Own: As soon as a proposed budget cut looms, as if on
cue governments start threatening to shut down the police force, fire department, and schools. Since almost
nobody wants to do without cops, firemen, or teachers, this is a highly effective tactic most of the time —
although oddly enough, governments always seem to find a way to hold on to the Special Executive Assistants For
Airport Graft, to say nothing of the odd Georgia Road and Tollway Authority.
Gun Nuts at 30,000 Feet? [Scroll down]
After the flight landed, the marshals nailed another terrorist suspect — Robert "Bob" Rajcoomar.
He was handcuffed and taken into custody because, as TSA spokesman David Steigman later explained, Rajcoomar, "to
the best of our knowledge, had been observing too closely." ... When the plane landed, Rajcoomar recalled, "One
of these marshals came down to me and said, 'Head down, hands over your head!' They pushed my head down,
told me to bend down." Rajcoomar said one of the marshals told him, "We didn't like the way you looked" and
"We didn't like the way you looked at us." Some air marshals apparently think of themselves as minor-league
deities whom no mortal should be permitted to directly observe.
Nothing
to fear but we citizens. According to yesterday's Herald, Boston City Hall has been testing
ePanicButton software. "[City] workers would be able to hit a button on their computer or push a pedal
on the floor to summon help if an angry taxpayer storms into City Hall or if someone arguing a parking ticket
gets out of hand," the Herald reported. ... Consider the thousands of businesses around New England that
provide customer service or take customer complaints. Now consider how few of them fear their customers
to the point of emergency panic systems.
"When the people fear their government
there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."
APF and Hardin Constitution Violations.
A Livingston state representative is questioning whether Hardin officials and American Police Force have violated
the Montana constitution. Representative Robert Ebinger says he became aware of the situation after
Cascade and Park County law enforcement officials came to him asking questions about APF. ... "No armed
person or persons or body of men shall be brought into the state for the presentation of the peace or the
suppression of domestic violence unless the application of the legislature or of the governor when the
legislature cannot be convened," said Ebinger while reading the constitution word for word.
California jail
entrepreneur has checkered past. Michael Hilton showed up in Hardin, Mont., last week,
presenting himself as an economic savior, the man who would take over the town's $27 million
jail — empty since it was built as a development project in 2007 — and provide 200 new
jobs in the process. He wore a military style uniform, and as a gesture to local law enforcement
offered up the use of three Mercedes SUVs.
Mystery 'Police' Force Has Small Montana City on Edge.
When two brand new, shiny black Mercedes SUVs bearing a "Hardin Police Department" logo drove through the main thoroughfare
of Hardin, Mont., last week, people took notice. "How many police forces have Mercedes?" said Charlene Warren, a local
business owner who has lived in Hardin for more than half a century. "That threw up a red flag."
Military helicopters land in Rolesville
field. Three Chinook military helicopters set down in a Rolesville field Monday afternoon,
witnesses said. People reported seeing the helicopters flying low and slow over Holly Springs,
downtown Raleigh and elsewhere in Wake County. A viewer told WRAL News they came to rest off Rogers
Road about half a mile from U.S. Highway 401.
The Editor asks...
Isn't that what Fort Hood is for? Why must this be done in a small town?
The Tipping Point?
We are living in a surreal age of $2 trillion annual deficits, in which we just casually talk about "more stimulus",
"reforming health care", "fixing education", "cap-and-trade", while fighting two wars abroad — all the while "not
raising taxes on 95% of Americans" — all predicated on the idea that "they" will always be willing and able to
create new wealth and now hand over two-thirds and more of it to an ever-expanding government.
High Court Curbs Power of Police to Search
Cars. The Supreme Court ruled that police couldn't search the car of a person arrested unless the
officer's safety was threatened or there was reason to think the car contained evidence of a crime, reviving a
constitutional protection against unreasonable searches. The court effectively closed a loophole opened
in a 1981 opinion that has been widely interpreted to allow police, without a warrant, to search cars — as
well as bags or containers within them — when they arrest a driver or passenger.
Congress
killing us softly with laws and red tape. For the past 20 years, I have advised landowners,
homebuilders and energy companies on the intricacies of the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act.
Both are complex statutes supplemented by dense volumes of regulations and administered by confusing agencies
that have state and local counterparts applying state and local versions of the similar laws and rules.
The costs of these regulatory regimes are enormous, but dimly, if at all, understood by the public. The
highest-sounding rhetoric surrounds both laws, but, even as they accomplish important environmental goals,
they also operate to batter tens of thousands of Americans every year.
The Coming of
the Fourth American Republic. The appropriations committees and their pork barrels are the most obvious
example of rule by special interest, but not always the most important. Whole departments are dedicated to special
interests — Labor, Education, Energy. Money is important, but regulation is every bit as useful,
especially because regulations can shift property rights from third parties without going through the budget process.
For example, environmentalists successfully combined a vaguely worded Endangered Species Act with control of the Fish and
Wildlife Service to shift the costs of their no-development ethic onto random land-owners, regardless of costs, benefits,
or fairness.
Let's 'Restructure' Washington While
We're at It. The federal government is a giant Rube Goldberg machine that not only wastes
hundreds of billions of dollars each year but also burdens local governments and the private sector with
legal requirements that no longer serve the public good. Congress should take its own advice and
retool Washington.
Demonizing
America's 86th most proftable industry. When Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and a sidekick decided
to intimidate CEOs in the health insurance industry, it wasn't just another instance of shabby politics, but an
imperious, anti-democratic abuse of power, an attempt to put the fear of the almighty federal government in
the hearts and minds of American citizens.
Former Chicago Cops Admit to Invading Homes and
Stealing. Four former members of a now-disbanded Chicago police unit have admitted they used to
barge into people's homes and steal money.
In England:
Arrests are being made 'to expand
DNA files'. Police are routinely arresting people simply to record their DNA profiles on the national
database, according to a report published today. It also states that three quarters of young black men are on the
database. The finding risks stigmatising a whole section of society, the equality watchdog has warned.
Also in England:
'Stunned' Driver Fined For Blowing His Nose. A motorist
has told Sky News of his disbelief at being fined for blowing his nose while his vehicle was at a standstill.
Michael Mancini had stopped his van in traffic and wiped his nose with a handkerchief. When he moved off,
he was pulled over by police who told him he had not been in control of his vehicle.
The Editor says...
Don't worry, Michael, that's what juries are for. (How difficult can it be to maintain control of
a stationary car?) This case shows what can happen when traffic cops become self-important badge-happy
goons.
The Attorney General and the Black Panthers
This subsection is now on a page of its own,
located here.
Stop and Think. Really.
Stop and think. What does your government actually do for you? ... In short, nothing tangible in
the room is a "gift" from the government. Not one thing. (This is true even if you happen to work for the
government and are situated in a government owned building. All of the work on the building was subcontracted.
All of the items in the building were privately produced.)
Many Of Today's Americans Love Government.
Congressional efforts to create "affordable housing" have created today's financial calamity. Congress props up
failed enterprises such as Amtrak and the U.S. Postal Service with huge cash subsidies, and subsidies in the forms of
special tax treatment and monopoly rights. I can't think of anything that Congress does well yet we Americans
call for them to take greater control over important areas of our lives. I don't think that stupidity, ignorance
or insanity explains the love that many Americans hold for government; it's far more sinister and perhaps hopeless.
I'll give a few examples to make my case.
FBI Defends Disruptive Raids on Texas Data
Centers. The FBI on Tuesday [4/7/2009] defended its raids on at least two data centers in Texas, in which agents
carted out equipment and disrupted service to hundreds of businesses. The raids were part of an investigation
prompted by complaints from AT&T and Verizon about unpaid bills allegedly owed by some data center customers,
according to court records. One data center owner charges that the telecoms are using the FBI to collect
debts that should be resolved in civil court. But on Tuesday, an FBI spokesman disputed that charge.
Democrats: It's
OK When We Politicize the Justice Department. The "politicization" of the Justice Department was
one of many aspects of the Bush administration which the Obama administration was going to cure. But it appears
that while the party of the administration has changed, we are seeing a level of political meddling at the Justice
Department which the Bush administration never remotely approached. First, we had word that Eric Holder overruled
the career attorney lawyers' research on the issue of voting rights for the District of Columbia. Now we learn that
political appointees have overturned the work of career attorneys attempting to prevent voter intimidation by the New
Black Panther Party.
Who pressured Justice to drop
case against voter intimidation in Philly? After screaming for 8 years about Bush "politicizing" the Justice
Department, it appears that there is a clear cut case of interference in a legitimate prosecution of the New Black Panther
Party for intimidating voters at a polling station in 2008 by Obama appointees.
Charges
Against 'New Black Panthers' Dropped by Obama Justice Dept. Charges brought against three
members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense under the Bush administration have been dropped by the
Obama Justice Department, FOX News has learned. The charges stemmed from an incident at a Philadelphia
polling place on Election Day 2008 when three members of the party were accused of trying to threaten voters
and block poll and campaign workers by the threat of force — one even brandishing what prosecutors
call a deadly weapon.
Protecting Black Panthers.
Imagine if Ku Klux Klan members had stood menacingly in military uniforms, with nightsticks, in front of a
polling place. Add to it that they had hurled racial threats and insults at voters who tried to enter.
Now suppose that the government, backed by a nationally televised video of the event, had won a court case
against the Klansmen except for the perfunctory filing of a single, simple document — but that an incoming
Republican administration had moved to voluntarily dismiss the already-won case. Surely that would
have been front-page news, with a number of firings at the Justice Department. The flip side of
this scenario is occurring right now.
Civil Rights: Who are the "Cowards"? On
taking office as Attorney General of the United States, Eric Holder stated that America is a nation of "cowards"
when it comes to race and that he would commit the Department of Justice to making civil rights cases a top
priority. President Obama himself promised to "reinvigorate federal civil rights enforcement," especially by
prosecuting cases of voting discrimination against blacks. On May 15 Obama's Department of Justice
quashed a civil rights case involving voter intimidation by blacks in Philadelphia on election day, 2008.
The U.S. Department of
Injustice. Let's examine the uproar over Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to protect hate-mongering thugs
who harassed and bullied precinct workers and voters on Election Day in Philadelphia. Oh, wait. There's been no
uproar. Let me tell you why.
Note:
The subsection about Elian Gonzales has moved to this page.
The Chicago Way is
Piracy, Too. While they don't use grappling hooks to board merchant ships, the Chicago Way pirates
do have their hooks in the merchants, nevertheless. The Chicago Way is a political system run by kleptocrats
who demand tribute from merchants whenever the merchants want to do something. If they want to get a building
permit or win a lucrative contract at O'Hare Airport, they must pay tribute.
Your
government in secret. Thom Rae wants to know why his town is spending $1 million to
keep a second-run theater afloat. Kevin and Anne Barber want to know what happened to the principal
who forced their 8th grader and his classmates to kneel painfully on a gym floor during a lecture on
respect. Patricia and Joel Garza want to know why so many secrets surround the investigation into the
crash that killed their grown son. They all want answers. The answer they all got was "no."
Chicago
City Hall routinely denies requests for public documents. The Daley administration routinely denies
requests for documents that could shed light on how the mayor really runs the city.
Colorado Governor Signs She-Male Restroom Bill.
This bill makes all public accommodations — including public restrooms and locker rooms in the state —
"gender free." This law now means that anyone who identifies as the opposite sex, can freely access public facilities
formerly reserved for a single sex. Sexual predators can now enter women's restrooms and claim they have a sexual
identity different from their birth sex. It makes it legal for drag queens, cross-dressers and anyone else with a
serious Gender Identity Disorder to use opposite sex restrooms and locker rooms. But it goes further. It defines
"public accommodations" as including malls, restaurants, schools, and small businesses.
The Taxpayer Frog In the
IRS Pot: In 1900 federal spending was $0.5 billion. In 2000 it was $1,789 billion.
Those amounts translated to 2.5% of GDP in 1900 and 21% in 2000. Government spending at all levels in the
U.S. was 36.5% of GDP in 2006. That 2.5% of GDP that could sustain the entire federal government in 1900
is not even enough to cover the Medicare program today. The Medicare program, by the way, did not exist
in 1900; it was established in 1965.
Nearly eight years in prison
without a trial. Whatever happened to the right of an accused to have a speedy trial? Once
a successful dentist in St. Louis County who treated many indigent patients, Charles Thomas Sell was accused of
Medicaid fraud in 1997. Although he has never hurt anyone, and a federal court held that he poses no
danger to those around him, prison officials frequently placed him in solitary confinement for periods that
totaled nearly two years.
Woman jailed for refusing
court-required psych exam. An Iowa grandmother has been banished to jail, including a night
in isolation, after refusing to give in to a judge's demand that she submit to a psychiatric exam and take
psychotropic drugs if prescribed to mitigate her opposition to abortion, her husband has confirmed.
Would Your Beliefs Brand You A
'Homegrown' Terrorist? H.R. 1955, titled the Violent Radicalization and
Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 allows the government to target Americans and
actually calls "thought" crimes "homegrown terrorism". Part of the bill (Section 899A)
employs extremely vague terminology ("violent radicalization") to describe the promoting of
any belief system that the government considers "extremist".
The Editor says...
Under H.R. 1955 it is a crime to "intimidate or coerce the United States government, the civilian
population of the United States, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social
objectives". Such a crime is depicted in the photo at the top of this page.
'Thought Crimes,' HR 1955 Passed.
The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed HR 1955, titled the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown
Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. It was passed with 404 votes in favor. ... This is a "Thought Crime"
bill of the type so often discussed in an Orwellian context. It specifically targets the civilian
population of the United States. It defines "Violent Radicalization" as promoting any belief system that
the government considers to be extremist. "Homegrown Terrorism" and "Violent Radicalization" are defined
as thought crimes. Since the bill does not provide a specific definition of extremist belief system, it
will be whatever the government at any given time deems it to be.
The Senate Could Vote on the "Thought Crimes" Bill Soon!
It should be remembered that following the Oklahoma City Bombing, the Clinton administration blamed not just
the indicted perpetrators, Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols and Michael Fortier, but also all those who had like
McVeigh, Nichols and Fortier protested against the government's deadly actions at Waco and Ruby Ridge.
Time magazine and other media organs joined the administration in charging that these "anti-government"
protesters were actually "ideational co-conspirators" with the OKC bombers. Like President Clinton,
President Bush now equates opposition to his policies, especially concerning the War in Iraq and the "War on
Terror," as unpatriotic, or even treasonable.
Bullies,
Muggers, Sneak Thieves, and Con Men. The beginning of political wisdom is the realization
that despite everything you've always been taught, the government is not really on your side; indeed, it is
out to get you. Sometimes government functionaries and their private-sector supporters want simply to
bully you, to dictate what you must do and what you must not do, regardless of whether anybody benefits from
your compliance with these senseless, malicious directives. The drug laws are the best current
example, among many others, of the government as bully.
America's Injustice System Is
Criminal. In the US the wrongful conviction rate is extremely high. One reason is that
hardly any of the convicted have had a jury trial. No peers have heard the evidence against them and
found them guilty. In the US criminal justice (sic) system, more than 95% of all felony cases are
settled with a plea bargain.
Armed and dangerous: Federal agencies expanding
the use of firepower. During the late morning of January 14, 1997, 20 heavily armed federal
agents and local sheriff's deputies descended from a military helicopter onto rocky Santa Cruz Island off the
California coast. As snipers moved into position along the ridge tops to secure the perimeter of the
attack area, other agents staged dynamic entries into the buildings — rousting 15-year-old Crystal
Graybeel who was sleeping late in her cabin. The agency responsible for all this was not the BATF, nor
the FBI, nor any other agency typically associated with such "dynamic entries." This raid was the work of
the National Park Service. At a time when elected legislative bodies from city councils to Congress have
been passing laws that restrict the rights of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms, federal agencies
within the executive branch have been quietly authorizing dramatically increased numbers of armed
personnel — often heavily armed with military-style assault weapons. Today, there are nearly
60,000 federal agents trained and authorized to enforce the over 3,000 criminal laws Congress has passed over
the years, plus the hundreds of thousands of regulations which now carry criminal penalties.
The EPA's Swat Team: Hubert Vidrine, a
manager at a refinery plant, was at work when FBI and EPA Criminal Division Agents stormed into his place of
business using M-16s and police dogs. His alleged crime was storing waste covered by the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) without obtaining a permit. Just wait, it gets better...
DOE
'SWAT' raid still troubling after story corrections. The story was a sensation on Wednesday morning
[6/8/2011]. A Department of Education SWAT team broke down the door to a house owned by a man whose wife was
delinquent on her student loans, according to original reports. The man was handcuffed and, along with his
children, put in a cop car for 6 hours. It turns out that some of this story was misreported. It
wasn't a SWAT team but a special branch of the DOE who executes search warrants. And it wasn't for a student
loan, but the warrant was in connection with a criminal investigation. But before you breathe a sigh of
relief, it should be rightly asked: What ... is DOE doing with a paramilitary unit to serve warrants?
SWAT
team launch dawn raid on family home to collect unpaid student loans. A father was dragged from
his home and handcuffed in front of his children by a SWAT team looking for his estranged wife — to
collect her unpaid student loans. A stunned Kenneth Wright had his front door kicked in by the
raiding party at 6 am yesterday before being dragged onto his front porch, handcuffed and led to a
police car with his three children.
How To Survive The Coming Martial Law In America.
Some patriots in the government have already let it leak that local police organizations are aggressively
recruiting US Marines still on active duty to leave the military and immediately become police officers... with
little or no training. These Marines have been trained not to protect and serve but to kill quickly and
efficiently. Let's face it, traditional armies are trained to dispatch enemies with vicious efficiency... and
that's why local police have always been trained differently. Local police have traditionally been
trained to protect and serve with respect for the rights of the citizens. But things have changed
dramatically in this country.
U.N.
Troops Preparing for Martial Law In America — Who Is FEMA Really? Is it far fetched
to imagine that these U.N. "peace keeping" forces would be used against American citizens? The 502nd,
another unit from Fort Campbell Kentucky, is shown here arriving as peacekeepers in Somalia wearing their U.N.
blue berets and insignia. Shortly thereafter this same unit the 502nd was in Arkansas practicing house
to house searches and seizures in a joint U.N. training mission called "Agile Provider" in the Spring of 1994.
Federal SWAT Raid Over ... Orchids.
So as it turns out, even the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has its own SWAT team.
Criminalizing everyone.
"You don't need to know. You can't know." That's what Kathy Norris, a 60-year-old grandmother of eight, was told
when she tried to ask court officials why, the day before, federal agents had subjected her home to a furious search.
The agents who spent half a day ransacking Mrs. Norris' longtime home in Spring, Texas, answered no questions while they
emptied file cabinets, pulled books off shelves, rifled through drawers and closets, and threw the contents on the floor.
The six agents, wearing SWAT gear and carrying weapons, were with — get this — the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service.
The
Unlikely Orchid Smuggler: A Case Study in Overcriminalization. George Norris, an elderly
retiree, had turned his orchid hobby into a part-time business run from the greenhouse in back of his home.
He would import orchids from abroad — South Africa, Brazil, Peru — and resell them at
plant shows and to local enthusiasts. He never made more than a few thousand dollars a year from his
orchid business, but it kept him engaged and provided a little extra money — an especially important
thing as his wife, Kathy, neared retirement from her job managing a local mediation clinic. Their life
would take a turn for the worse on the bright fall morning of October 28, 2003, when federal agents,
clad in protective Kevlar and bearing guns, raided his home, seizing his belongings and setting the gears in
motion for a federal prosecution and jail time.
'Overcriminalization' Making Us a Nation of
Felons? Critics argue there are so many new laws, rules, and regulations that it's all too easy to violate one of these laws and never
know you did it. Take, for example, Texas retiree George Norris and his wife, Kathy: federal agents raided and ransacked their Texas home
in 2003. Originally, the indictment against them was sealed, so they weren't even told why they were targeted at first. [...] George wound up
serving nearly two years in federal prison alongside killers, rapists, and other hardened criminals. What was his crime? A paperwork
violation related to flowers in his backyard nursery: buying, importing, and selling perfectly legal orchids.
Computer
snafu is behind at least 50 'raids' on Brooklyn couple's home. Blame it on a computer.
Embarrassed cops on Thursday [3/18/2010] cited a "computer glitch" as the reason police targeted the home
of an elderly, law-abiding couple more than 50 times in futile hunts for bad guys.
The raid on Mayor Cheye Calvo's house
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Cops Employing Robbers: [Ryan]
Frederick's case is only one recent example of the inherent danger and disproportionate absurdity of using
violent, forced-entry police tactics to serve nonviolent drug warrants. This raid on a man with no prior
criminal record left a police officer dead, his wife widowed, and his children without a father, while
effectively ruining Ryan Frederick's life. He's facing one count of capital murder for the shooting
of [Detective Jarrod] Shivers, a felony drug distribution charge, and a charge of using a weapon during
the commission of a drug crime.
D.C.
family wins suit over raid on home. A Capitol Hill family won a lawsuit against the D.C.
government after their row house was raided in a search for evidence that their renovation plans violated the
city's historic preservation laws. About a dozen police officers and D.C. Consumer and Regulatory
Affairs inspectors searched the home of Laura Elkins and John Robbins four years ago, entering the bedrooms of
their teenage children who were home sick from school, and searching through drawers, behind furniture and
under carpets.
Available in the airport gift shop.
Big Brother endorses
these playthings. Two years ago in this column, I lamented the fact that toy manufacturers were
cashing in on society's headlong rush toward constant and ubiquitous surveillance. I highlighted a Lego
construction set that included, as part of a police 18-wheeler, a surveillance and monitoring unit. I
also noted a plastic "play set," manufactured and marketed by Playmobil, depicting a police officer wanding a
civilian figure as pretend belongings go through a pretend X-ray machine. This trend toward "play"
search and surveillance has continued, and now includes a functioning toy metal detector.
The Gangster State:
A recent incident in San Diego illustrates that there isn't nearly enough distance separating the federal government
from the criminal underworld. According to the local NBC television affiliate, four gunmen disguised as federal
agents conducting a drug raid "invaded a home near the San Ysidro border crossing…. Investigators
say the gunmen were dressed as agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms." What is surprising
is not that the criminals chose to disguise their home invasion as a federal raid, but rather that this sort of
thing hasn't happened more often.
Kathryn Johnston: A Year Later.
When police forced their way into Johnston's home, she met them holding a rusty old revolver, fearing she
was about to be robbed. The police opened fire, and killed her. Shortly after the shooting, the
police alleged that they had paid an informant to buy drugs from Ms. Johnston's home. They said she
fired at them first, and wounded two officers. And they alleged they found marijuana in her
home. We now know that these were all lies. In fact, everything about the Kathryn Johnston
murder was corrupt.
Sometimes 'sorry' doesn't cut
it. A SWAT team from the Milwaukee Police Department burst into Denise Berndsen's
apartment and turned the place upside down looking for evidence of child porn. Oops. The
man they were targeting had moved out five weeks earlier. Instead they roughed up Berndsen,
who had returned home from back surgery that day, her 74-year-old father, and a man she had just
started dating and who for a few terrifying minutes wondered what he got himself into.
The Rise of a Judicial
Dictatorship: The Warren Court launched a social, cultural and moral revolution and began openly
to dictate to what had been a self-governing people. Under this dictatorship, radically secularist and
egalitarian, America's public schools were as de-Christianized as thoroughly as in the Soviet Union.
There
is No War on Drugs! Why does the War on Some Drugs and Users continue despite the obvious
failure of every tactic tried by prohibitionists? Could it be that the illegal drug trade engenders
such massive untraceable black market profits and forms of social control that the Warriors really do not
want the War to end? When one takes the endless tales of corruption, greed and lies on the part of
so many Drug Warriors into consideration, it isn't such a stretch of the imagination.
Powder and crack
cocaine: Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments about a case in which the judge
refused to impose the notoriously high sentence required for crack cocaine, Kimbrough v. U.S. While the
case doesn't challenge the sentencing disparity directly, it calls attention to the statute that punishes
crack cocaine with sentences 100 times greater than for powder cocaine, despite the fact that there is no
difference in the chemical makeup of the two forms of cocaine.
Drug
Laws' Absence of Justice. You've probably read about the disparity in federal mandatory minimum
sentences before. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 mandated a five-year minimum sentence for possession
of 5 grams of crack cocaine or 500 grams of powdered cocaine. Civil rights groups have attacked
the 100-1 volume disparity on racial grounds. The U.S. Sentencing Commission found that more than
80 percent of crack offenders are black, while some 80 percent of powdered cocaine offenders
are white.
The War on Drugs is No Laughing Matter. Alcohol
did not create Al Capone's gang violence in the hometown of our current president. Prohibition did.
Marijuana does not create murderous drug cartels in Mexico. America's War on Drugs does.
This could happen here, too ...
Couple
plan to sue RCMP over 911 reaction. A North Vancouver couple has complained to District of North
Vancouver council and said they will sue the North Vancouver RCMP after officers responded to their hang-up
911 call by breaking down their door, making a forceful arrest and jailing them overnight when the couple
refused to allow a house-search. ... North Vancouver resident Marget Lieder said that in the early
evening of Oct. 25 she was having wine with her partner and a guest when she misdialed the
emergency number, meaning to call 411 instead. … "I don't want my privacy to be invaded just
because I misdial a number," she said.
Incidentally, there could be at least 100 Ways to Mis-Dial 911.
And even if you dial 911 when you need it, there are no guarantees.
Woman
Waits 35 Minutes On 911 While Intruder Breaks In. A Williamson County woman fought off an
intruder with a vacuum cleaner. She was desperate for help, waiting for almost 35 minutes for law
enforcement to arrive. The single mom described that 35 minutes like the scene of a horror movie
as she watched a man walk from windows to doors doing anything to break in to her home.
Caller desperately seeking help gets sleeping 911 operator instead.
The unidentified employee was placed on administrative leave after a panicked woman whose husband was turning blue called for help — and heard nothing but snores.
"Hello? Hello? Hello?" the caller asked as the sleeping operator snored away on the tape acquired by NBC4 News in Washington. "Now he's all blue," the
crying woman said at one point to the sound of sawing wood.
Pentagon wants new spying powers
in the US. The Pentagon says it won't spy on "innocent" Americans, but critics say
past record shows this is false.
Monitoring Americans: There is a proper role for
police in a free society. They are needed to protect lives and property, to respond in emergencies, and
investigate crimes — and the NYPD and America's other local police departments have long served admirably
and honorably in this role. But in a militarized society, one in which the police are no longer
accountable to local civil authorities and become instead an instrument of a central government in
Washington, the central government could be expected to abuse its newfound law-enforcement powers.
Cheney won't tell
how much he keeps secret. A standing executive order, strengthened by President Bush in 2003,
requires all agencies and "any other entity within the executive branch" to provide an annual accounting of
their classification of documents … but [Vice President] Cheney insists he is exempt.
I guess the telephone is out of the question...
Passport customers fume over
parking fees. Getting a passport was already starting to get pricey for Mary Simpson. In
March, she paid $97 for the passport application fee, plus another $60 to expedite it. She's expecting
to fork over $80 in gas for the trip from San Antonio to find out in person the status of her application.
Then, the parking sign declares "$10."
City
may banish TV dishes from view. The Boston City Council, citing a proliferation of satellite
television dishes across the city, is considering banning the devices from the front of buildings. Saying
that the dishes are potentially dangerous and increasingly hard to overlook in parts of the city where some
buildings are festooned with them, councilors plan to consider a measure to confine the satellite television
receivers to the back of buildings, out of public view.
[Potentially dangerous? How?]
The
Runaway Train That Hit Scooter Libby. With the sentencing of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby,
[Patrick J.] Fitzgerald has apparently finished his work, which was, not to put too fine a point on it,
to make a mountain out of a molehill.
[This investigation] would not have been conducted if, say, the Iraq
war had ended with 300 deaths and the mission had really been accomplished. An unpopular war produced the
popular cry for scalps and, in Libby's case, the additional demand that he express contrition — a
vestigial Stalinist-era yearning for abasement.
N.J. Governor's SUV Went
91 Mph Before Crash. The SUV carrying Gov. Jon S. Corzine was traveling about
91 mph moments before it crashed, Superintendent of State Police Col. Rick Fuentes said
Tuesday [4/17/2007]. The governor was critically injured when the vehicle crashed into a
guardrail on the Garden State Parkway just north of Atlantic City last week. He apparently
was not wearing his seat belt as he rode in the front passenger's seat.
[The car is going 91 mph, and he's not wearing a seat belt. Oh, but that's
okay because he's the governor after all, and a state trooper was driving. Who's
going to tell him to slow down?]
Frustration over Corzine
not buckling up. Last year, New Jersey law officers ticketed 271,182 people for not wearing seat
belts. This year, one seat-belt violator stands out: Gov. Jon S. Corzine, who was critically
injured in an automobile accident last week. … State police said Trooper Robert Rasinski, Corzine's
driver, was wearing a seat belt and received minor injuries in the wreck, while Corzine aide Samantha Gordon
was riding in the back seat without a seat belt and received minor injuries.
Virginia Introduces $3550 Speeding Ticket.
Virginia legislator introduces new speeding ticket tax that boosts penalties beyond $3550, driving business to
his traffic law firm.
Highway Robbery: One definition
of injustice is grossly disproportionate punishment. You don't put people into prison for a year because
they jaywalked. So what do we make of Virginia's new "civil remedial fines" that slam ordinary motorists
with thousand-dollar fines (payable in "three easy installments") for relatively minor traffic violations? ... We
all know of broad avenues that seem to drop for no apparent reason from 55 to 35 mph — typically,
with a motorcycle cop hiding behind a bush just beyond where the drop goes into force. It has always been
unfair. Now, it's egregious.
All the material about "Corporate Social Responsibility"
has been moved here.
Shattered Dreams: 100 Stories of
Government Abuse. This publication highlights how regulations that are poorly written and/or
inflexibly enforced can overwhelm, intimidate, bankrupt or otherwise harm average Americans. It features
situations related to the Americans with Disabilities Act, building codes, INS, IRS, the Endangered Species Act,
OSHA, Indian Affairs, zoning, property rights issues, etc.
Shattered Dreams: 100 Stories of
Government Abuse. Download the entire book in PDF format.
Ruled by
scoundrels. The March 10 [2003] issue of Human Events carried a special report on the 10 most
outrageous government programs. … The Legal Services Corp. headed the list, followed closely by
the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act and the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931. Rounding out the
list were: Americorps, Endangered Species Act, No Child Left Behind Act, Amtrak, Corporate
Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standards, Title X Family Planning Act, and the provision of welfare
payments to non-citizens and illegal aliens.
FCC Compliance
and the Station Engineer. Broadcasting may not be unique in this, but it certainly presents
a severe case of a regulated industry. My view is that at least 13 layers of regulation burden
broadcasting. The layers go by names like FCC, FAA, OSHA, BOCA, DOJ, Copyright Tribunal,
Homeland Security, etc.
Colleges
Protest Call to Upgrade Online Systems. The federal government, vastly extending the
reach of an 11-year-old law, is requiring hundreds of universities, online communications companies
and cities to overhaul their Internet computer networks to make it easier for law enforcement
authorities to monitor e-mail and other online communications.
City of Seattle
may ban microwave popcorn. First, Washington State banned indoor public smoking. Now, the
City of Seattle may ban employees from making microwave popcorn. No kidding. A memo from the Fleets
and Facilities Department addressed to "Employees at Civic Center Buildings" says there has been several
evacuations in recent years due smoke alarms being tripped by burning popcorn.
Man risks five years jail time for using open WiFi
connection. A Michigan man who was caught using a coffee shop's unsecured WiFi connection while
sitting in the car park was fined $400 and ordered to do 40 hours community service. But he could
have received a 5-year jail term, as the state law which covers this is part of a 1979 anti-hacking bill which
makes this a felony.
Investigate
the CIA. Political correctness reigns in the U.S. government at every level, and the
CIA is no exception. The result is an agency that is conducting a steady leak campaign against
President Bush designed to discredit the Iraq war and undermine the war on terror.
How
someone else's meth habit leaves you with a runny nose: Under the Combat Meth
Act, which Congress is expected to pass soon, you too can be treated like a criminal the next
time you have nasal congestion, thereby doing your part to help achieve a drug-free society.
Hoover wanted to put 12,000 in
jail. A newly declassified document shows that J. Edgar Hoover, who headed the FBI from 1924 to
1972, had a plan to suspend habeas corpus and imprison about 12,000 Americans whom he suspected of disloyalty.
Hoover sent his plan to the White House on July 7, 1950, 12 days after the Korean War began. It
envisioned putting suspect Americans in military prisons.
FBI Examines Pastor's Sermons On
Culture. Nov. 23, 2004, started out like any other normal morning for Randy Steele, senior
pastor at Southwest Christian Church in Mount Vernon, Ill., a town about 80 miles southeast of
St. Louis. … The Pastor was questioned by the FBI over the way he talked about abortion
from a biblical perspective.
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