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.

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.

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.

The Waco Siege:  What Happened When the Feds Laid Siege to the Branch Davidian Compound.  The siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, is an important event in American history because it directly led to one of the biggest terrorist attacks on American soil — the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building.  It's not necessary to defend this act of terrorism to understand why the entire freedom movement of the time was so incensed by it.  Indeed, it stood as a symbol of federal overreach and the corruption of the Clinton Administration.  It's important to separate fact from fiction when it comes to the siege of Waco, just as it is important to do so with the siege of Ruby Ridge or the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi.  With every event, it is important to stick to the facts and what can be extrapolated from them to make the strongest argument about what went wrong and why, and what could be done differently in the future.

Waco:  The Untold Story.  ATF management knew that a peaceful arrest would have been easy to arrange — if they wanted it that way.  ATF management did not.  At this point, it was a beleaguered agency, wracked by scandals, with a new administration promising to "reinvent government" by doing away with small, inefficient agencies.  The beginning of the ATF's appropriation cycle was under two weeks away.  ATF management desperately needed lots of good publicity, the type that a dramatic raid would generate and a quiet arrest would not. [...] All this evidence has been available, largely on the internet, for over a decade.  We are left to hope that some journalist or documentarian will pick up the ball.

Overview of the Waco Massacre.  In 1993, 76 citizens — including 26 children — were burned to death when the FBI laid siege to a Branch Davidian compound in Waco on the grounds they believed cult leader David Koresh possessed unauthorized weapons.  However, there was no reason for the FBI to use police state tactics.  Koresh visited town almost every week and could have easily been arrested during these excursions.  Six years later the FBI admitted during the course of a civil lawsuit that the tear gas it fired into the compound was, in fact, pyrotechnic tear gas, which, probably caused the fire that killed most of the people.  The shells were even stamped with a fire warning.  Moreover, a law enforcement infrared video revealed muzzle flashes from the FBI's positions, so contrary to the FBI's testimony that they did not fire "a single shot," it appears its snipers were shooting people as they tried to escape the compound.  Indeed, a Policy Analysis report by the Heritage Foundation stated that "numerous crimes by government agents were never seriously investigated or prosecuted" and therefore, "the people serving in our federal police agencies may well come to the conclusion that it is permissible to recklessly endanger the lives of innocent people, lie to newspapers, obstruct congressional subpoenas, and give misleading testimony in our courtrooms."

Ruby Ridge, Waco, and the swamp.  As one alternate juror put it, "I felt like a little kid that finds out there is no Santa Claus."  This was the remark of one citizen who observed testimony and other evidence arising from the 1992 Ruby Ridge incident, in which an innocent woman and her 14-year-old son were ambushed and gunned down by federal agents over what was, at worst, a minor infraction that could easily have been remedied without violence.  Then, in the following year, the Waco incident proved, once again, that there is no government Santa Claus.  Seventy-six men, women, and children were killed in a fire started by the improper use of tear gas by federal agents after four of the agents were killed trying to gain forced entry to the building housing the targeted cult members.  Yet the cult leader could easily have been arrested in prior days, when he had voluntarily visited the federal office to which he had been summoned.

Hillary Clinton and the Branch Davidian Holocaust.  [Vince] Foster had a special Waco file.  Deborah Gorham, his personal secretary, said that he had a cabinet reserved for his most sensitive files:  "There were two.  One was Sean Hadden [a White House staffer], and the other was Waco."  After his death, Foster's Waco file somehow vanished.  Secret Service Agent Henry O'Neil later testified before a Congressional committee that on the night of Foster's death he encountered Maggie Williams leaving Foster's office with two handfuls of folders.  Williams denied removing any files, and when called upon to explain her presence in Foster's office that night, claimed she had gone "in the irrational hope that she would find her colleague still alive there."

More about Vince Foster.

Hillary Clinton and the Chain of Command at Waco.  The 1993 Waco showdown began when federal authorities rushed the communal home of a religious group, killing six of them, and losing four agents in return.  The FBI then besieged the place with tanks and other armored vehicles, and ended up with the armored vehicles punching holes in the building, and injecting massive quantities of CS "tear gas." When that didn't work, the tanks began to demolish the building, eventually smashing about a quarter of it and damaging the remainder.  A fire broke out and 74 people died in the flames, including twenty-one children.  It was the deadliest law enforcement operation in American history.  After the tragic debacle, the Clinton administration claimed that Attorney General Janet Reno had been solely responsible for the final assault.  There had been no White House input during the siege, and at the end, President Clinton only acquiesced in a decision Reno had made.  Twenty-three years later, there are substantial reasons to doubt the truth of these claims.  The evidence is strong that the Clinton White House was calling the shots, and that Hillary played a prominent role.

Hillary's Waco Deception.  Before Benghazi, before the e-mail scandal, before the numerous allegations of impropriety involving the Clinton Foundation, there was Waco.  On April 19, 1993, a few short months into Bill Clinton's first presidential term, nearly 80 men, women, and children perished at Mt. Carmel, their religious community and home near Waco, Texas.  A Federal investigation into the tragedy in 2000 found that government agents were not responsible for the deaths of Davidian civilians — that the sect members who died there had committed mass suicide, similar to the Kool-Aid drinking by Jim Jones' aficionados, but more violent.  This verdict was significant, given the allegations by Davidian survivors and relatives that sect members had been shot as they tried to flee their burning buildings.  And while many laid blame for the outcome at the feet of then-Attorney General Janet Reno, there are claims that Hillary Clinton was actually the one in charge.

Hasn't Al Sharpton Heard of Waco?  Those like Sharpton who hope to nationalize the police might want to recall what our national police forces accomplished on the dusty plains outside of Waco, Texas, twenty-two years ago next Sunday.  For those of short memory, the FBI, trying to mop up for a botched earlier raid by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), launched a tank attack on a Branch Davidian religious community called the Mount Carmel Center.  The ATF had gotten it into its head that the Branch Davidians were converting legally owned, semi-automatic AR-15s into illegal, fully automatic weapons.  The ATF had no proof of this beyond the report from one neighbor who thought he heard machine gun fire, a report that the local sheriff had already investigated and discounted.

Disastrous raid on the Branch Davidians compound near Waco quietly remembered 20 years later.  The 20th anniversary of the disastrous raid on the Branch Davidians compound near Waco passed quietly Thursday [2/28/2013], as colleagues of the four agents who died gathered in private and local officials made no plans to mark the day.

Waco's Assault on Religious Toleration.  Looking over the span of American history, we must be struck by what a radical departure the conflict marked in religious terms.  Rather than ask what could have led believers to follow such a bizarre movement, we should see the Davidians as part of a well-established tradition of religious movements in America.  It is the ferocity of the official response that still demands explanation.

The Editor says...
Once again, it wasn't Waco that did this.  The evidence points to Janet Reno and Bill Clinton.

Progressives, Guns, and the Assault on Truth.  It is very clear that the Obama anti-private gun ownership people are on the offensive right now.  The mass murder of little children by a private gun user has a way of doing that.  (There was no such outcry when Bill Clinton and Janet Reno ordered the massacre of more than 20 children at Waco in 1993.  After all, Branch Davidians were on the fringes of what "bien-pesant" journalists would call polite or acceptable society, or what my academic colleagues call "wackos," "gun nuts," and "whack jobs."  In other words, they were not like the rest of us, so the FBI and BATF gave them what they deserved.) [...] On top of that, we have seen exponential increases in SWAT-type raids in which innocent people are killed, young children terrorized, and people unnecessarily exposed to police brutality.

The 'Heroic' Louis Freeh and His Legacies.  [Scroll down]  No, I am writing in order to let readers know that this "heroic" Louis Freeh has some serious baggage of his own, baggage that includes covering up murders, whitewashing the most hideous domestic massacre since Wounded Knee, publicly making wrongful accusations, and further turning the Federal Bureau of Investigation into an entity that James Bovard accurately has called, "A Stasi for America."

When They Come for the Smaller Groups....  Everywhere, totalitarian governments do the same:  one group after another, singled out, marginalized, demonized, and then safely destroyed or brutalized.  And the rest of the population remains silent.  Why?  Because "I am not a Jew, or a Ukrainian, or a Menshevik, or a kulak, or a person with glasses."  The massacre in Waco of a few days ago bears all the marks of this tactics.  A group is picked so small and marginal that most people won't associate with them.  The group is then marginalized and demonized, and all kinds of false accusations are said about them — violence, illegal drugs, illegal weapons, etc.  Then, when the group is so marginalized that the majority of the population won't trust them, and won't take their word for anything, the government ambushes them and guns them down. [...] It was that same Waco that saw an earlier version of the same tactics, with the Branch Davidians.

Siege at Ruby Ridge:  The Forgotten History of the ATF Shootout that Started a Militia Movement.  The short version is this:  Randy Weaver and his wife Vicki moved with their four kids to the Idaho Panhandle, near the Canadian border, to escape what they thought was an increasingly corrupt world.  The Weavers held racial separatist beliefs, but were not involved in any violent activity or rhetoric.  They were peaceful Christians who simply wanted to be left alone.  Specifically for his beliefs, Randy Weaver was targeted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) in an entrapping "sting" operation designed to gain his cooperation as a snitch.  When he refused to become a federal informant, he was charged with illegally selling firearms.  Due to a miscommunication about his court date, the Marshal Service was brought in, who laid siege to his house and shot and killed his wife and 14-year-old son.

Ruby Ridge and the Age of State Terrorism.  Sara Weaver has forgiven the people responsible for murdering her mother Vicki and younger brother Samuel twenty years ago.  Lon Horiuchi, the FBI sniper who shot Vicki in the head while she was holding a ten-month-old infant, is still being sheltered by the Regime that employed him.  If he were any part of a man, Horiuchi would make a pilgrimage to Sara's home in Montana to express remorse for the crimes he committed against her family.