Impeachment!

Representatives Meadows and Jordan in the House of Representatives have just introduced a resolution to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for high crimes and misdemeanors. There are five articles written against Rosenstein.

Article I deals with Rosenstein’s refusal to recuse himself from the Russia investigation or appoint a second special counsel to investigate the conflict of interest and misconduct by the FBI.  Rosenstein was in charge of the FISA application to spy on Carter Page that was based in part on paid opposition research from the Clinton campaign.

Article II covers Rosenstein’s obstruction of justice in refusing to turn over subpoena’d documents and refusal to notify witnesses that Congress was seeking their testimony.  Interestingly, this article also hits Mueller for instructing material witnesses to refuse to provide testimony to Congress.  Congress has oversight over the Justice Department and refusing to comply with their requests amounts to obstruction of justice.

Article III accuses Rosenstein of obstruction of justice by using redaction to hide material evidence from Congress.  These redactions include hiding potentially embarrassing information about the cost of Andrew McCabe’s $70,000 conference table, hiding the relationship between Peter Strzok and FISC Judge Rudolph Contreras, hiding the names of high ranking FBI and Obama administration officials, and other redactions used to hide information from Congress.  Rosenstein’s decision to redact the relationship between Strzok and Contreras is especially important given Strzok’s promise to “stop Trump” and the FISC’s decision to issue a secret warrant based on Clinton’s paid opposition research.

Article IV suggests that Rosenstein used an improper basis to appoint Robert Mueller as special counsel and hid the basis through improper use of redaction.  Rosenstein still refuses to provide Congress with a less redacted version of his scope memo for Robert Mueller.

Article V deals more directly with Rosenstein’s supervisory role in the authorization of FISA searches.  Rosenstein is accused of failing to vet Christopher Steele’s phony dossier and failing to fully notify the FISC of the circumstances surrounding the creation of the dossier.  Article V also hits Rosenstein again for his refusal to appoint a second independent Special Counsel to review wrong doing by the Obama Justice Department and FBI in these matters.

A couple important things to note in the impeachment articles: Robert Mueller is mentioned for compelling witnesses not to testify to Congress.  This could be an issue for the Mueller investigation in the near future.  Strzok’s relationship with Judge Rudolph Contreras could lead to a call for an investigation into the secretive workings of the FISC itself.

You can read the articles of impeachment here.

 

Newsflash 7/25/18

Trump has been criticized by both sides of the aisle for imposing tariffs on China and threatening tariffs against the EU.  Trump himself has maintained that he doesn’t want tariffs or barriers to trade, but is imposing them because other countries have already imposed tariffs on the US.

Today a trade war was avoided with the EU as they capitulated under threat of tariff and have granted the US major trade concessions.  The EU will import more soybeans from the US and lower tariffs on industrial goods in the deal to avoid US tariffs.  The Dow ended up about 172 points after the announcement.

EU avoids trade war by giving US concessions on tariffs

 

Need to Know 7/25/18

They can dish it out… Days after Sacha Baron Cohen’s “gotcha” show started airing, Democrats are up in arms over a video poking fun at Ocasio-Cortez.  Cohen’s show puts mostly GOP former politicians in a bad light through trickery, fake IDs, and playing on those individuals tendencies.  For example, to trick Sarah Palin into a gotcha moment, Cohen impersonated a disabled vet.

Allie Stuckey of CRTV figured turnabout was fair play.  Stuckey is known for using humor and satire in her videos.  She made a video of a satirical interview with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, using actual footage from Ocasio-Cortez’s disastrous real interviews where she fumbled on questions about Israel and unemployment.  Dems are not happy.  For example, the Independent complained that Stuckey’s video had gone viral and reached 1.5 million viewers before the Facebook police labeled it as satire.  Others have dubbed the satirical video “fake news”.  Cohen’s show debut only got 700,000 views.

Maybe they are jealous?

Democrats upset about being the butt of political satire

Trump is now the target of an incredible political attack from former Clinton attorney Lanny Davis.  Davis has secret tapes that Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen made discussing how they would pay a Playboy model for her story of an affair with Trump.  Cohen is working with US prosecutors in an investigation that has quickly turned into a Kenneth Starr type hunt into Trump’s past sex life.  Lanny Davis is representing Cohen and delivered the tapes of their private privileged conversations to CNN to air publicly.

New York is a one-party consent state, making the recordings legal.  Trump also waived his attorney-client privilege in the matter because paying off someone for a non-disclosure agreement is not illegal.  Cohen is being investigated for fraud, and Trump apparently didn’t want any shadow of that investigation hanging over him.  So far, Trump has not actually been the target of any of the investigations surrounding his campaign, Russian connections, or Cohen’s potential fraud.

Clinton lawyer gives secret Cohen/Trump tapes to CNN

ICE protesters have a race problem.  It turns out the people who showed up to protest ICE in Portland might be advocating for illegal immigrants, but they hate African Americans and citizen Hispanics.  Emails received by The Oregonian detail conversations between officers on site and their supervisors.  The protesters, according to the emails, barraged the African American officers with hateful language and slurs including the N-word.  Another officer, a Hispanic woman, was called a “weak female” and “traitor”.  “I was berated for so long I can’t even remember everything that was told to me.”

ICE protesters use racism and hate speech in Portland

How Obama Saved Trump

Ok, let’s be honest.  Anyone who says Trump committed treason in Helsinki is a moron who doesn’t know how our government works.  Yes, John Brennan – former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, you are a moron who doesn’t know how the constitution works.  It’s so bad, left leaning Politifact had to fact check your claim. Politifact had to fact check a claim by the former CIA director of whether the President of the United States had committed treason.  And you lost.

Maybe that’s why Trump is revoking Brennan’s security clearance.

Brennan wasn’t alone.  Representative Adam Smith, ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, also called Trump’s statements treason.  The soon to be irrelevant New York Daily News led with the cover title “Open Treason”.  A recent poll shows that nearly half the country (guess which half) think Trump committed treason.

But here’s the best part: Trump didn’t commit treason because Obama never treated Russia’s cyber attacks as an act of war.

One of the key essentials to treason, as pointed out by Politifact, is that we be at war with the “enemy” that the traitor provided aid and comfort to.  We aren’t at war with Russia, Trump can’t be a traitor for saying nice things about them.

So then you might ask, if Russia issued a cyber attack against us and tried to influence our elections in 2016, why aren’t we at war with them?  Because when Russia used cyber attacks to steal DNC emails and try to influence our election, President Obama issued a stand down order to cyber security chief and told him to back burner any action against Russia. 

In other words, if Trump committed treason by fumbling with his words and saying he couldn’t understand why Russia would meddle (never mind what he thought he meant to say), then Obama committed treason in 2016 by secretly issuing the stand down against Russia.  Otherwise, Russia is not our enemy and Trump can say whatever he wants.

Maybe Democrats should knock off the bull crap and follow through with what they claim to believe.  Maybe Democrats should introduce a declaration of war on Russia in Congress.  If Russia actually was our enemy, maybe they could start tossing around legitimate treason claims that stick.  But given the cozy history between major Democrats and Russia in the past, they’d probably end up regretting it.

Need to Know 7/24/18

Maryland is joining other states in rejecting single payer universal healthcare systems after discovering the cost.  The program would cost the state $24 billion and would be paid for by an automatic 10% tax on everyone’s income and a flat $2,800 tax on every man woman and child.  For an individual making $50k a year, that would amount to $650 a month, compared to current plans averaging $475 per month.  Maryland Democrats were reportedly shocked to discover that universal healthcare isn’t free.  Wait until they see the price tag for universal income.

Single Payer could cost state $24 billion per year

All is quiet on the northern front, that is the North Korea front, as North Korea dismantles one of their nuclear sites.  North Korea has also not launched missiles or tested nukes in 9 months.  The press has suggested that North Korea wasn’t holding up their end of the bargain or that the deal was off, but that seems to not be the case.  It seems that North Korean denuclearization is proceeding.

North Korea dismantling important launch site

The ACLU gets what it wants, though they won’t admit it.  Political Brief reported 6 days ago that the ACLU had won a hold on deportations so that parents could choose to be separated from their children and deported while their children stayed.  Now the ACLU is complaining that 463 parents were deported without their children.  But this is exactly what they were fighting to achieve a week ago.  The ACLU admits they have no idea how many of those 463 parents signed consent forms requesting to be deported without their children.  So far 897 parents have been reunited with their children, 538 more have been cleared and are in the process of being reunited, and 454 have been deemed to be ineligible for reunification either because they are unrelated human traffickers or violent criminals.

ACLU gets what they want, parents deported without their children

 

Need to Know 7/23/18 Evening Edition

As first reported yesterday, Trump is likely going to pull security clearances from several former Obama administration appointees.  The appointees, including Andrew McCabe, James Clapper, John Brennan, Susan Rice, and others have been controversial figures.  Clapper and Brennan have accused the President of treason in editorial capacities.  McCabe was fired from the FBI for improper interactions with the press.  Others on the list, like James Comey, have claimed that their security privileges are already revoked.

Trump to revoke security clearance for former intel officials

Indicted Russian operative Maria Butina was part of private meetings with Obama officials in 2015.  Butina met with Federal Reserve vice chairman Stanley Fischer, Treasury Undersecretary Nathan Sheets, and Russian Central Bank deputy governor Alexander Torshin.  Butina has been indicted as a Russian spy who sought to influence US politics and elections.

Alleged Russian agent met with Obama officials

In New York they are literally letting the criminally insane out to vote for Governor Cuomo.  Cuomo has handed out pardons to thousands of former prisoners in time for the election, including 77 sexual predators who had been committed to psychiatric hospitals after serving their prison time.  The pardon gives them the right to vote, according to the New York Daily News.

Cuomo pardons sexual predators so they can vote

The deadest horse in political history, the Trump Russia collusion story, continues to be mercilessly beaten by Democrats.  But it’s over.  Trey Gowdy gave the best summation of the death of the Trump Russia investigation on Sunday, telling Fox host Bret Baier that if there was actually any evidence found against Trump in this two year investigation, Rep. Adam Schiff would have leaked it by now.  The Democrats can pray for an obstruction charge, but the Bill Clinton precedent suggests that’s not going anywhere.  Also, anyone who Trump might have tried to obstruct, such as Comey, McCabe, or Rosenstein, has already proven themselves to be extremely biased and unreliable as a witness.  Stick a fork in this one.  Yup, another fork.

If there was evidence, Schiff would have leaked it

Newsflash 7/23/18

Rand Paul is expected to ask Trump to revoke former CIA chief John Brennan’s security clearance.  Since leaving the CIA, Brennan has joined up with MSNBC as a political commentator, often hostile to Trump.  Brennan recently accused Trump of treason and said he should be impeached over his press conference with Putin in Helsinki.  Paul suggested that Brennan was using his security clearance to enrich himself by passing state secrets to MSNBC.  Republicans have expressed concern over the extreme partisanship shown by the former CIA director and former FBI director James Comey.

Rand Paul to ask for Brennan’s security clearance to be revoked

Need to know 7/23/18

Iran, in trouble with their people and staring down the barrel of new US sanctions, began a tweet war with Trump over the “mother of all wars”.  Trump responded in all caps that Iran’s leaders would suffer consequences few others have.  In the end it’s likely all blowing smoke.  Iran doesn’t have nuclear capabilities and the US isn’t about to go invade another Middle Eastern country.  But the developments continue to show that despite the rhetoric and narrative, Trump has been tougher on Russia allies than Obama was.

Rouhani warns Trump about mother of all wars

Speaking of rhetoric on Russia, Trey Gowdy had a warning for Trump administration officials that they should steer Trump to take Russia more seriously or consider leaving their posts.  Gowdy has consistently chided the Trump administration for not being tough enough on Russia’s election interference, however he has also acknowledged the extreme prejudice shown by Obama’s intel apparatus. In addition to noting that James Comey, James Clapper, and John Brennan continue to show their anti-Trump bias in editorials, Gowdy recently took Inspector General Michael Horowitz to task over his failure to call out anti-Trump bias deeply rooted in the FBI.  Texts from Peter Strzok reveled that the Russia/Trump collusion investigation was an “insurance policy” to “stop Trump”.  But so far, nothing has actually tied Trump to Russia or proven collusion.

Anti-Trump bias in the FBI can’t be put aside

Speaking of bias, the FISA court warrant to spy on Carter Page and the Trump campaign has been released through a Freedom of Information Act request.  This extraordinary release marks the first time a secretive FISA warrant has been released.  It proves two things.  The first is that Hillary Clinton’s paid for political propaganda dossier played a major role in getting the warrant.  Second, that the secret warrant to spy on a US citizen during the Obama administration was obtained simply because there was suspicion that Russia was trying to recruit him.  It’s also important to know that the warrant was issued after Page was no longer with the Trump campaign. Spying on a US Citizen because there is a belief that a foreign power might try to recruit them is likely a violation of the 4th Amendment.

For some good reading, here is Andy McCarthy’s argument why suspicion that someone is being recruited by a foreign government is not good enough to secretly spy on a US Citizen.

If you want to read through the FISA Warrant, you can do that here.

What do Sacha Baron Cohen and James O’Keefe have in common?  Both used hidden cameras to expose the other side.  It’s interesting to see how many lend credence to what Cohen exposes compared to those who dismissed O’Keefe’s videos out of hand  because they felt he was using trickery or deceptive editing.  O’Keefe’s undercover operations exposed massive Democrat voter fraud and routine illegal activities being carried out by Planned Parenthood.  Cohen got a racist Georgia politician to drop his pants and shout the N word.  I wonder if the Left will dismiss Cohen so quickly.

Sacha Baron Cohen gets former GOP lawmaker to make racist jokes 

 

Need to know 7/22/18

“The administration has implemented an ‘Insider Threat Program’ in all government departments to urge federal employees to monitor their colleagues for possible unauthorized information disclosures. Administration employees suspected of leaking classified information are given lie-detector tests and subject to reviews of their telephone and e-mail records”

No, this isn’t Trump era policy.  This is a flashback to a 2013 USA Today article about an Obama crackdown on the press.  “This (The Obama administration) is the most closed, control freak administration I’ve ever covered,” – David E. Sanger, chief Washington correspondent of The New York Times.

Flashback: Obama often blocks Press access to information

Even as Democrats publicly say that #walkaway is simply a ploy by Russian bots to weaken their party, the split between moderates and socialists is deepening.  Centrists are definitely showing concerns over the rise of Ocasio-Cortez, who seems to be the perfect representative for the politically ignorant millennial generation.

Centrist Dems arguing against far leftists 

Want some fun? The Russia/Trump connection was an “insurance policy” to “stop Trump” according to operatives in the FBI.  Their own tweets give this away.  But the Media Research council has highlighted this even better by putting together a compilation of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama talking quite differently about Russia before the election.

“This election will not be rigged.”  “We want Russia to be strong.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Hall of Fame

The latest gaff by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez kind of makes me wonder if she is a GOP operative secretly working to stop Bernie Sanders style socialism.  Ocasio-Cortez was recently in Kansas campaigning for Brent Welder, promising to “flip this seat red”.

This follows Ocasio-Cortez’s assertion that the only reason unemployment is so low is because everyone has two jobs.  Unemployment is actually measured by surveying the percentage of people who are currently seeking employment.  It has nothing to do with how many jobs each person has.

Ocasio-Cortez got famous for beating Joe Crowley in New York’s 14th district.  The district is so blue that if Crowley and Ocasio-Cortez both ran and split the liberal vote, one of them would still win.  But Ocasio-Cortez didn’t seem to take that into account when she attacked Crowley for trying to run a third party campaign because he had originally registered for multiple parties, and New York won’t allow him to remove his name from the ballot.  Crowley endorsed her and promised to support her, but Ocasio-Cortez lashed out in paranoia when she found out his name would still be on the ballot.

Perhaps what made her infamous though was her admission that she has no clue what she’s talking about when it comes to Israel.  Ocasio-Cortez fumbled through an interview where she tried to insinuate that Israel was blocking Palestinians from accessing their homes and actively occupying Palestine.  Eventually she gave up.  In a later interview, she promised that she would “get with activists” so she could learn more about the Israel/Palestine issue.

Not all Democrats are on the Ocasio-Cortez Socialist train.  Ocasio-Cortez herself supported lower taxes when she was a business owner, but her business failed shortly before she switched to Socialism and tried to get involved in politics for the first time.  At age 26, Ocasio-Cortez went to vote for the first time and discovered she had been purged from the New York voter rolls for 8 years of inactivity.  That was 2016.  She then joined the Bernie Sanders campaign and rose from non-voting millennial failed business owner to rising star of the DNC.  But not all Democrats are happy with her.

Florida representative Alcee Hastings has already shut down any prospects of her taking over the DNC.  “Meteors fizz out,” Hastings said. “what she will learn in this institution is that it’s glacial to begin with, and therefore no matter how far you rise, that’s just how far you will ultimately get your comeuppance.”

Perhaps her paranoia was justified.  One time relevant Democrat Joe Lieberman is telling Democrats to vote for Joe Crowley.  The party split between moderates and socialists is more defined than ever.  Who knows, maybe she’ll succeed in turning more districts “red”.