Justin Smith writes about how FISA warrants violate the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Justin is absolutely correct. On a personal level, I feel during war that security overrides Rights. Friends we have been in a state of war with Islamic terrorists since September 11, 2001.
NOW! I have found myself modifying my perspective of the Patriot Act and FISA warrants. Once it has become apparent that Executive Administration of President Barack Hussein Obama weaponized FISA warrants in an effort to maintain a Left-Wing government under Crooked Hillary, I have begun to re-think my concept of the usage of FISA warrants used without probable cause against U.S. citizens. Incidentally, FISA Warrants were not designed for U.S. citizens but rather against non-citizens that might pose a terrorist threat against Americans.
In FISA abuses the FBI, Intelligence Agencies, the State Department and probably more from the Executive Branch; used back door unmasking to spy on American citizens as well as potential dangerous foreign entities.
These FISA abuses under Obama (who also weaponized the IRS and what else?) have made America a Leftist police state with the full cooperation of the MSM that pro-Leftist in influencing America.
Well that is enough of me. Read Justin Smith’s take on how the Fourth Amendment has been unconstitutionally annulled.
One’s liberty is the most precious thing next to life itself, and Americans must stop standing in silence, while Presidents, past and present, and Congressmen erode and trample our Fourth Amendment Right, no matter their intentions, through Orwellian legislation that directly contravenes it. Everyone must vociferously and fiercely oppose and counter these so-called “leaders” and their illegal violations of the Constitution, by replacing all those, who recently voted for the FISA Reauthorization Act of 2017, because no one, even in the name of national security, has any right or authority to take our liberty.
The FISA Reauthorization Act passed in the House, 256 to 164, on January 11th, and it passed by 65 – 34 vote[Blog Editor: Justin’s original text said the FISA reauthorization succeeded by only one vote. I did not find that vote, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t occur. Many votes often occur until a final vote is taken which often appears different than previous votes for constituents who agree with the majority vote.] in the Senate [S. 139], on January 18th; and, through the House vote on Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, the House rejected the USA Rights Act, 233 to 183, and its requirement that officials must obtain warrants before searching and reading Americans’ emails, after they are acquired in any surveillance operation.
Bulk surveillance on all Americans without a warrant, heretofore known to be unConstitutional, is now deemed acceptable by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Courtand the U.S. Congress, but incredulously, they do make one exception. A warrant is required for the emails of the subject in an open criminal investigation, where no national security concerns exist, thus providing criminals more rights than normal, law-abiding everyday U.S. citizens.
One must also be shocked by House Joint Resolution 76, which was passed by this Congress and signed by President Trump on August 22, 2017. It allows the searches of homes and businesses without any warrant, in areas adjacent to the Washington [D.C.] Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and extending miles outward in all directions, and far into nearby regions of Maryland and Virginia.
All of the aforementioned goes against the Fourth Amendment, which states that Americans’ rights “to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause.”
The serious nature of these developments is further highlighted by new evidence exposed by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, who has deep insight through a “top secret” clearance. He charged on January 18th, that seen through the prism of overt pro-Hillary bias and anti-Trump prejudice exhibited by the CIA, FBI and other agencies and their use of National Security Agency secret information for political purposes, they were all untrustworthy with our information and the nation’s intelligence secrets. The many abuses under the Obama Administration exposes the danger of giving too much power to our intelligence agencies, who seem far too willing to use stored metadata for harassment, blackmail and to further their own political agendas.
FBI Director Christopher Wray viewed Nunes’s classified House Intelligence Memo on Sunday January 21st. The next day Deputy Director Andrew McCabe announced his “retirement”. McCabe was named in the memo, as the person who used the unverified Steele Dossier to illegally obtain a FISA warrant against President Trump.
The House Intelligence Committee Memo released on February 2nd shows that a presidential campaign was spied on. An unverified dossier, that nobody will stand by under oath was used in an illegal manner to obtain a FISA warrant. And yet, with this knowledge in hand seven days before the House vote, Representative Nunes and twenty-one other House committee members kept over five-hundred of their colleagues in the dark, about domestic spying abuses, while the debate on that very issue was ongoing, and they voted to expand the power of those who abused it.
Surely the expansion of FISA would never have passed the Senate, if the damning information contained in the House Intelligence Committee Memo had been released seven days earlier. If just one conscientious senator had known of the NSA and FBI abuses concealed by the House Intelligence Committee, and changed his vote, the expansion would have failed.
Any American paying attention is now asking, “What is going on with our government?” They know that the Fourth Amendment has been abrogated, gutted, by the very representatives and senators who swore an oath to preserve, protect and defend our U.S. Constitution.
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) had vowed to fight reauthorization of Section 702 without reforms. Just prior to the vote on the USA Rights Act, he stated: “Our Founders gave us the Fourth Amendment to prevent a tyrannical government from invading our privacy, and we are fools to relinquish that hard-won right because of fear. The Founders did not include the Fourth Amendment in the Bill of Rights as a suggestion.”
Significantly, on January 11th, President Trump noted that Section 702 was used to “badly surveil and abuse the Trump campaign“, as he expressed skepticism regarding FISA. At the very least, this should have withheld his signature, until FISA was reformed. He would have served America better, if he had followed his initial gut instinct.
After signing the bill, President Trump falsely told America that it only targeted foreigners. Is this another case of Trump being easily manipulated by his advisors, or is it one more instance of his own lack of knowledge and preparation on an issue?
The FISA Reauthorization Act is now in place until 2024. Each day from this point on, all of us must demand it be rescinded, and before we allow its renewal, it must be reformed.
Liberty is the essence of our natural state, so when Congress acts to limit our liberty in favor of greater security, obtained through a FISA operation with highly questionable results in the war on terrorism, they are philosophically, historically and constitutionally wrong. Our liberty is of infinitely greater worth to us, than the security we have instructed Congress to ensure.
Congress’s recent actions are moves to permanently destroy our right to privacy, exalting safety over liberty and providing neither. And in the process, limited government is being undone, right before our eyes.
As Ludwig von Mises reminds us, government is essentially the negation of liberty. If anyone truly believes that monitoring everyone in America is the least restrictive way to keep us safe, let that person surrender his own privacy. The rest of us will retain ours and provide for our own safety.
I did not consent to the abrogation of my Fourth Amendment Right, and I don’t imagine most of America did either. Our rights are inalienable and cannot be separated from us, not by Congress, not by anyone.
By Justin O. Smith
________________
Edited by John R. Houk
Text embraced by brackets and all source links are by the Editor.
I found an awesome video that begins by quoting Senator McCain accusing President Trump of subverting the rule of law by tainting the FBI. It is idiot statements like that which make me feel ashamed I voted for that RINO in 2008. I mean, my GOD! Doesn’t McCain realize that Obama’s Administration directed these unconstitutional/treasonous actions against Trump? I am stupefied about McCain because it closet comrade Obama that defeated him for the Office of President in 2008!
Just a small note of criticism about the video: the narrator briefly says “Fusion GSP” when the actual nefarious organization’s name is Fusion GPS. Also, this Black Pigeon Speaks video is best watched in full screen to get the full impact of the narrator’s explanation of the details of the FISA Memo.
TRUMP REACTS TO FISA MEMO: “I Think It’s Terrible. I Think It’s a Disgrace What’s Happening in Our Country”
When you read the FISA Memo you must realize it was sanitized to allegedly protect sources and methods of investigation. Even so, it is not a difficult stretch to understand the nefarious nature that Donald Trump was targeted before and after the November 2016 election by Obama Administration leadership (probably including Obama himself). The weaponized police state of Obama, the Dems AND Crooked Hillary tried to feloniously steal the election and failing that, STILL use false and/or fake data to impeach a duly elected President.
AND the American free press (aka the Leftist MSM) have been full participants in disseminating the falsified/fake data to an American public of which many believe the Mainstream Media is still a credible source of news.
So, this is what I’m going to do for my blog readers. First, I am posting a Fox News’ Catherine Herridge report. Second, the FISA Memo sourced from the Western Journal. WJ leaves out the intro on the original Memo so I am extracting from a pdf downloaded from SCRIBD courtesy of the fake news channel CNBC.com. Last but not least – third, BPR review article entitled, “7 biggest takeaways from the FISA memo that was just released”.
Chairman, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
United States Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Mr. Chairman:
On January 29, 2018, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (hereinafter “the Committee”) voted to disclose publicly a memorandum containing classified information provided to the Committee in connection with its oversight activities (the “Memorandum,” which is attached to this letter). As provided by clause 11(g) of Rule of the House of Representatives, the Committee has forwarded this Memorandum to the President based on its determination that the release of the Memorandum would serve the public interest.
The Constitution vests the President with the authority to protect national security secrets from it disclosure. As the Supreme Court has recognized, it is the President’s responsibility to classify, declassify, and control access to information bearing on our intelligence sources and methods and national defense. See, e.g., Dep’t of Navy v. Egan, 484 US. 518, 527 (1988). In order to facilitate appropriate congressional oversight, the Executive Branch may entrust classified information to the appropriate committees of Congress, as it has done in connection with the Committee’s oversight activities here. The Executive Branch does so on the assumption that the Committee will responsibly protect such classified information, consistent with the laws of the United States.
The Committee has now determined that the release of the Memorandum would be appropriate. The Executive Branch, across Administrations of both parties, has worked to accommodate congressional requests to declassify specific materials in the public interest.1 However, public release of classified information by unilateral action of the Legislative Branch is extremely rare and raises significant separation of powers concerns. Accordingly, the Committee’s request to release the Memorandum is interpreted as a request for declassification pursuant to the President’s authority.
The President understands that the protection of our national security represents his highest obligation. Accordingly, he has directed lawyers and national security staff to assess the
_________________________________
1 See, e.g. S. Rept. 114-8 at 12 (Administration of Barack Obama) (“On April 3, 2014 . . . the Committee agreed to send the revised Findings and Conclusions, and the updated Executive Summary of the Committee Study, to the President for declassification and public release”); H. Rept. 107-792 (Administration of George W. Bush) (similar); E.O. 12812 (Administration of George H.W. Bush) (noting Senate resolution requesting that President provide for declassification of certain information Via Executive Order).
_________________________________
declassification request, consistent with established standards governing the handling of classified information, including those under Section 3.1(d) of Executive Order 13526. Those standards permit declassification when the public interest in disclosure outweighs any need to protect the information. The White House review process also included input from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Justice. Consistent with this review and these standards, the President has determined that declassification of the Memorandum is appropriate.
Based on this assessment and in light of the significant public interest in the memorandum, the President has authorized the declassification of the Memorandum. To be clear, the Memorandum reflects the judgments of its congressional authors. The President understands that oversight concerning matters related to the Memorandum may be continuing. Though the circumstances leading to the declassification through this process are extraordinary, the Executive Branch stands ready to work with Congress to accommodate oversight requests consistent with applicable standards and processes, including the need to protect intelligence sources and methods.
Sincerely,
Donald F. McGahn II
Counsel to the President
Here’s the Full Text of the FISA Memo Written by Rep. Devin Nunes
In all cases, any typographical emphasis — whether bold type, italics or underline — is original to the memo. Our goal here was to provide as accurate a representation of the original document as possible while still making it a little easier to read than the facsimile versions currently available online. — Ed. Note
January 18, 2018
To: HPSCI Majority Members
From: HPSCI Majority Staff
Subject: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Abuses at the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Purpose
This memorandum provides Members an update on significant facts relating to the Committee’s ongoing investigation into the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and their use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) during the 2016 presidential election cycle. Our findings, which are detailed below, 1) raise concerns with the legitimacy and legality of certain DOJ and FBI interactions with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), and 2) represent a troubling breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from abuses related to the FISA process.
Investigation Update
On October 21, 2016, DOJ and FBI sought and received a FISA probable cause order (not under Title VII) authorizing electronic surveillance on Carter Page from the FISC. Page is a U.S. citizen who served as a volunteer advisor to the Trump presidential campaign. Consistent with requirements under FISA, the application had to be first certified by the Director or Deputy Director of the FBI. It then required the approval of the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General (DAG), or the Senate-confirmed Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division.
The FBI and DOJ obtained one initial FISA warrant targeting Carter Page and three FISA renewals from the FISC. As required by statute (50 U.S.C. §,1805(d)(l)), a FISA order on an American citizen must be renewed by the FISC every 90 days and each renewal requires a separate finding of probable cause. Then-Director James Comey signed three FISA applications in question on behalf of the FBI, and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe signed one. Then-DAG Sally Yates, then-Acting DAG Dana Boente, and DAG Rod Rosenstein each signed one or more FISA applications on behalf of DOJ
Due to the sensitive nature of foreign intelligence activity, FISA submissions (including renewals) before the FISC are classified. As such, the public’s confidence in the integrity of the FISA process depends on the court’s ability to hold the government to the highest standard—particularly as it relates to surveillance of American citizens. However, the FISC’s rigor in protecting the rights of Americans, which is reinforced by 90-day renewals of surveillance orders, is necessarily dependent on the government’s production to the court of all material and relevant facts. This should include information potentially favorable to the target of the FISA application that is known by the government. In the case of Carter Page, the government had at least four independent opportunities before the FISC to accurately provide an accounting of the relevant facts. However, our findings indicate that, as described below, material and relevant information was omitted.
1) The “dossier” compiled by Christopher Steele (Steele dossier) on behalf of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Hillary Clinton campaign formed an essential part of the Carter Page FISA application. Steele was a longtime FBI source who was paid over $160,000 by the DNC and Clinton campaign, via the law firm Perkins Coie and research firm Fusion GPS, to obtain derogatory information on Donald Trump’s ties to Russia.
a) Neither the initial application in October 2016, nor any of the renewals, disclose or reference the role of the DNC, Clinton campaign, or any party/campaign in funding Steele’s efforts, even though the political origins of the Steele dossier were then known to senior DOJ and FBI officials.
b) The initial FISA application notes Steele was working for a named U.S. person, but does not name Fusion GPS and principal Glenn Simpson, who was paid by a U.S. law firm (Perkins Coie) representing the DNC (even though it was known by DOJ at the time that political actors were involved with the Steele dossier). The application does not mention Steele was ultimately working on behalf of—and paid by—the DNC and Clinton campaign, or that the FBI had separately authorized payment to Steele for the same information.
2) The Carter Page FISA application also cited extensively a September 23, 2016, Yahoo News article by Michael Isikoff, which focuses on Page’s July 2016 trip to Moscow. This article does not corroborate the Steele dossier because it is derived from information leaked by Steele himself to Yahoo News. The Page FISA application incorrectly assesses that Steele did not directly provide information to Yahoo News. Steele has admitted in British court filings that he met with Yahoo News — and several other outlets — in September 2016 at the direction of Fusion GPS. Perkins Coie was aware of Steele’s initial media contacts because they hosted at least one meeting in Washington D.C. in 2016 with Steele and Fusion GPS where this matter was discussed.
a) Steele was suspended and then terminated as an FBI source for what the FBI defines as the most serious of violations—an unauthorized disclosure to the media of his relationship with the FBI in an October 30, 2016, Mother Jonesarticle by David Corn. Steele should have been terminated for his previous undisclosed contacts with Yahoo and other outlets in September— before the Page application was submitted to the FISC in October — but Steele improperly concealed from and lied to the FBI about those contacts.
b) Steele’s numerous encounters with the media violated the cardinal rule of source handling — maintaining confidentiality — and demonstrated that Steele had become a less than reliable source for the FBI.
3) Before and after Steele was terminated as a source, he maintained contact with DOJ via then-Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, a senior DOJ official who worked closely with Deputy Attorneys General Yates and later Rosenstein. Shortly after the election, the FBI began interviewing Ohr, documenting his communications with Steele. For example, in September 2016, Steele admitted to Ohr his feelings against then-candidate Trump when Steele said he “was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president.” (Emphasis Nunes’.) This clear evidence of Steele’s bias was recorded by Ohr at the time and subsequently in official FBI files — but not reflected in any of the Page FISA applications.
a) During this same time period, Ohr’s wife was employed by Fusion GPS to assist in the cultivation of opposition research on Trump. Ohr later provided the FBI with all of his wife’s opposition research, paid for by the DNC and Clinton campaign via Fusion GPS. The Ohrs’ relationship with Steele and Fusion GPS was inexplicably concealed from the FISC.
4) According to the head of the FBI’s counterintelligence division, Assistant Director Bill Priestap, corroboration of the Steele dossier was in its “infancy” at the time of the initial Page FISA application. After Steele was terminated, a source validation report conducted by an independent unit within FBI assessed Steele’s reporting as only minimally corroborated. Yet, in early January 2017, Director Comey briefed President-elect Trump on a summary of the Steele dossier, even though it was — according to his June 2017 testimony — “salacious and unverified.” While the FISA application relied on Steele’s past record of credible reporting on other unrelated matters, it ignored or concealed his anti-Trump financial and ideological motivations. Furthermore, Deputy Director McCabe testified before the Committee in December 2017 that no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISC without the Steele dossier information.
5) The Page FISA application also mentions information regarding fellow Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos, but there is no evidence of any cooperation or conspiracy between Page and Papadopoulos. The Papadopoulos information triggered the opening of an FBI counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016 by FBI agent Pete Strzok. Strzok was reassigned by the Special Counsel’s Office to FBI Human Resources for improper text messages with his mistress, FBI Attorney Lisa Page (no known relation to Carter Page), where they both demonstrated a clear bias against Trump and in favor of Clinton, whom Strzok had also investigated. The Strzok/Lisa Page texts also reflect extensive discussions about the investigation, orchestrating leaks to the media, and include a meeting with Deputy Director McCabe to discuss an “insurance” policy against President Trump’s election.
+++
7 biggest takeaways from the FISA memo that was just released
By declassifying the memo, President Trump just blew up Washington, D.C.
The controversial FISA memo, released by the House Intelligence Committee to the public on Friday, contains a number of bombshell revelations related to the FBI’s surveillance on the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.
At least one Republican, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, concluded that the document shows “clear and convincing evidence of treason.”
Here are the biggest takeaways.
Andrew McCabe admitted the dossier was used as the justification to secure a FISA warrant on Carter Page
Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon).
“Deputy Director McCabe testified before the Committee in December 2017 that no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the FISC [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court] without the Steele dossier information.”
The FBI’s probe into the Trump campaign was triggered by aide George Papadopoulos
“The Papadopoulos information triggered the opening of an FBI counterintelligence investigation in late July 2016 by FBI agent Pete Strzok.”
The FBI had no evidence of a connection between Papadopoulos and Page
Former Trump adviser Carter Page. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite).
“The Page FISA application also mentions information regarding fellow Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos, but there is no evidence of any cooperation or conspiracy between Page and Papadopoulos.”
The FBI knew the DNC and Clinton campaign were behind the dossier–but didn’t disclose that knowledge to the FISA court
Former FBI Director James Comey. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File).
“Neither the initial application in October 2016, nor any of the renewals, disclose or reference the role of the DNC, Clinton campaign, or. any party/campaign in funding Steele’s efforts, even though the political origins of the Steele dossier were then known to senior and FBI officials.”
“The initial FISA application notes Steele was working for a named US. person, but does not name Fusion GPS and principal Glenn Simpson, who was paid by a US. law firm (Perkins Coie) representing the DNC (even though it was known by DOI at the, time that political actors were involved with the Steele dossier).”
The FBI paid Christopher Steele to work on the dossier
Christopher Steele, the former MI6 agent who compiled the Trump dossier. (Photo by Victoria Jones/PA Images via Getty Images).
“The application does not mention Steele was ultimately working on behalf of – and paid by – the DNC and Clinton campaign, or that the FBI had separately authorized payment to Steele for the same information.”
Top DOJ official Bruce Ohr met with Steele in 2016 and told the FBI the British spy had an anti-Trump bias
Glenn Simpson, co-founder of Fusion GPS, which paid for the dossier on behalf of the DNC and Clinton campaign. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais).
“Before and after Steele was terminated as a source, he maintained contact with DOJ via then-Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, a senior DOJ official who worked closely with Deputy Attorneys General Yates and later Rosenstein.
“Shortly after the election, the FBI began interviewing Ohr, documenting his communications with Steele. For example, in September 2016, Steele admitted to Ohr his feelings against then-candidate Trump when Steele said he ‘was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president.’
“This clear evidence of Steele’s bias was recorded by Ohr at the time and subsequently in official FBI files, but not reflected in any of the Page FISA applications.”
The memo reveals which officials green-lighted surveillance on Carter
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik).
“As required by statute, a FISA order on an American citizen must be renewed by the FISC every 90 days and each renewal requires a separate finding of probable cause.
“Then-Director James Comey signed three FISA applications in question on behalf of the FBI, and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe signed one. Sally Yates, then-Acting DAG Dana Boente, and DAG Rod Rosenstein each signed one or more FISA applications on behalf of DOJ.”
In response to the memo, President Trump said “it’s a disgrace what’s happening in our country” and that “a lot of people should be ashamed of themselves.”
Pres. Trump says GOP memo has been declassified: "Congress will do whatever they're going to do. But I think it's a disgrace what's happening in our country…A lot of people should be ashamed of themselves." https://t.co/OfR9pu29Wopic.twitter.com/wJHEptrGrk
After the State of the Union speech last President Trump was caught on mike telling South Carolina GOP Rep. Duncan that he is 100% behind releasing the FISA Memo to the American people. Whether that Presidential answer was the desire of the President’s heart or an actual made decision, only time will tell.
President Trump caught on hot Mic on Tuesday after state of the union speech, He guaranteed Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) he’ll release a controversial memo by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA).
Below is a Fox News report on the hot mike and that is a computer-generated voice from Youtube channel Today News including the description.
Rep. Jeff Duncan urges President Trump to ‘release the memo’ as he exits the House chamber following the State of the Union address.
http://video.foxnews.com/v/embed.js?id=5723029867001&w=466&h=263
President Donald Trump was overheard telling a GOP lawmaker Tuesday night that he’s “100 percent” behind releasing a classified Republican intelligence memo detailing alleged surveillance abuses.
“Don’t worry,” the president reportedly told U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., on the House floor after delivering his first State of the Union address. “One hundred percent.”
Duncan asked Trump to “release the memo,” a controversial document drafted by U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
The House panel voted Monday along party lines to release the memo, prompting a political fight between Republicans and Democrats and pitting Congress against the FBI and the Department of Justice, which object to the release of the four-page document.
Republicans said the memo reveals alleged abuses of government surveillance powers in the investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Democrats said the document is selectively edited in an attempt to thwart the investigation.
House Speaker Paul Ryan came out Tuesday in support of releasing the memo, but warned against using it to attack special counsel Robert Mueller. “This is a completely separate matter from Bob Mueller’s investigation and his investigation should be allowed to take its course,” he said.
The Justice Department called the Republican staff memo’s release “unprecedented” and “reckless.” Assistant Attorney General Stephen E. Boyd wrote in a Jan. 24 letter that “Though we are currently unaware of any wrongdoing relating to the FISA process, we agree that any abuse of that system cannot be tolerated.”
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray reportedly advised White House Chief of Staff John Kelly against releasing the memo, saying such action would set a dangerous precedent and would not accurately characterize the FBI’s investigative practices, the Washington Post reported.
But two senior FBI officials – one from the bureau’s counterintelligence division and the other from the legal division – who reviewed the memo said they “could not point to any factual inaccuracies,” Fox News reported Tuesday.
The White House has five days to review the content of the memo and decide whether to release the memo. It said Tuesday that it would conduct a legal and national security review before making the decision.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Lukas Mikelionis is a reporter for FoxNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @LukasMikelionis.
After President Donald Trump gave his brilliant State of the Union address, he was stopped and asked a question about the FISA memo. His five-word answer has Democrats freaked out, and for good reason.
The House Intelligence Committee voted on Monday, January 29, 2018, to release the FISA memo which many have said will shake the political world to the core. The damning memo has already claimed one deep state operative, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. Now, all eyes are on President Trump to see what he will do next with the FISA memo, and the video clip of his departure from the State of the Union address reveals exactly what that is.
According to The Gateway Pundit, President Trump was stopped by Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) on his way out of the House of Representatives building. The first thing on Duncan’s mind was the FISA memo and making sure the President knew that he and others want it released as soon as possible.
In the clip, Duncan can be heard asking Trump if he would release the FISA memo. Trump’s five-word answer is enough for the Democrats to start panicking. “Oh yeah, don’t worry, 100%,” Trump responded. Reportedly, Trump has five days from Monday to decide to release the memo after review. According to comments made by Congressman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) during an interview on Fox & Friends, Trump is not likely to take all five days.
CLIP: As President Trump exits the House Chamber, @RepJeffDuncan asks him to #ReleaseTheMemo. #SOTU#SOTU2018 pic.twitter.com/O1hHYFdPxM
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 31, 2018
In addition to Gowdy’s comments, White House Legislative Director Marc Short spoke with veteran journalist Stuart Varney Tuesday, discussing the most recent developments on the secret FISA memo. “Stuart, I think the president sides on the side of transparency so I think if there were abuses he wants the American people to know it,” he explained.
“But let me be clear that the president can do this in a responsible fashion. We only received the document last night. White House counsel began to review it last night. The National Security Council will be leading the inter-agency process here to make sure no secrets were divulged and no methods were divulged. And, so, it will be done in a very responsible manner,” added Short.
I don’t think President Donald Trump wants to waste any time getting the FISA memo out. Many Republicans have already viewed the memo and urged the President to release it to the public. It’s understandable that, after a year of waiting, American patriots are a little anxious to see heads start to roll within our corrupt government agencies and departments.
For those who thought that President Trump might read the FISA memo during the SOTU, that’s not quite his style. Trump’s first SOTU was unifying and brilliant. The contents of the FISA memo would have had quite the opposite effect and worked against the message that Trump wanted to deliver. In addition, I think President Trump wanted to give officials from the FBI time to review the material before going public with it.
According to Fox News, two high-level officials at the FBI have reviewed the FISA memo and even they could not point out any factual inaccuracies. One of the FBI officials is from the bureau’s counterintelligence division, and the other one is from the legal division. They reportedly looked at the FISA memo after FBI Director Christopher Wray viewed it on Sunday, January 28, 2018.
Now that a total of three officials from the FBI have viewed the FISA abuse memo, the bureau has been strangely quiet about it and has yet to even release a statement on the departure of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. In my opinion, McCabe was just a good start, but many others within the FBI’s top ranks need to be dismissed and then prosecuted for their crimes.
After SOTU, Trump Says 5 Words To Congressman That Has Democrats FREAKED OUT
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The theme of Justin Smith’s essay is #ReleaseTheMemo. Most notably, Justin goes over the facts about FBI, DOJ and Dem Party (yup, that includes Barack Hussein Obama and Crooked Hillary) “apparatchiks” (as Justin calls the Marxist comrades – Russian origin details) determined first to prevent a Trump election. Then failing in the first agenda, second is to bring down President Donald Trump.
“Never can true reconcilement grow where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep.” – John Milton
Americans are currently living in some of the most interesting and dangerous times, that they may ever hope to never see again, especially once one views the machinations of the corrupt and criminally-minded high-ranking government officials and intelligence and FBI agents, under the Obama administration, who weaponized the FBI and the Department of Justice. The entire system of FISA-702 surveillance and data collection was weaponized against Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and his subsequent presidency, in a manner that can only be described as illegal, unconstitutional and sedition, if not outright treason.
As reported by Sara Carter, investigative journalist and Fox News contributor, a four-page classified House Intelligence Committee memo, spearheaded by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, was made available to all House members on Thursday January 18th. It outlined extensive abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that could lead to several senior officials in the FBI and the DOJ being fired, along with the end of Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel investigation of President Trump.
“There are four pages of a memorandum prepared by the intelligence committee that will shock the conscience of the country when it comes to the horrific abuses that occurred during the last administration and that I believe continue to pose a threat to Donald Trump’s presidency,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) stated on Fox News.
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said that he was sickened by the memo. He said the information it contained showed behavior by the Obama administration that was “worse than Watergate“.
Until Admiral Rogers blew the whistle, the FBI had been giving Fusion GPS and CrowdStrike access to the FISA database. They halted access on April 18, 2016; once they learned of Rogers’ investigation, and the very next day, Mary Jacoby, Glenn Simpson’s wife, went to the White House.
One must also note that Bruce Ohr, who was recently removed from his position as associate Deputy General at the Justice Department, met with Christopher Steele during the 2016 campaign. Shortly after the election, Steele also met with Glenn Simpson, the founder of Fusion GPS. And Bruce Ohr’s wife Nellie was working for Simpson at the time.
Nellie Ohr is a Stanford University PhD and a subject matter expert on Russia, speaks Russian and is well versed on CIA operations. Her skills include building counterintelligence frameworks to give the appearance of events, that never actually occurred.
Numerous Wall Street Journal and Fox News reports are now credible, in their assertions that the FBI illegally used false information in the Steele Dossier to obtain FISA warrants against President Trump and members of his campaign staff and cabinet, such as Michael Flynn and Carter Page. The FBI claimed Page, a Trump advisor, was a “Russian agent” and no source anywhere else made that claim, except for Christopher Steele.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) asked for a criminal investigation of Steele, on January 25th, for making “false statements”. He also called for the release of the memo.
On January 12th, Sean Hannity (FoxNews) stated: “I spoke to three people, two congressional members, one person in the DOJ. They all confirmed at different levels that 100 percent the dossier was used … [ to get] the FISA warrant.”
This is extremely important considering that FBI agent Peter Strzok, who was in regular contact with the CIA and handled counterintelligence operations, was a source for the Steele Dossier, as was CIA Director John Brennan. They, along with many others such as Andrew McCabe — Hillary Clinton apparatchik, Susan Rice and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, fed the false narrative of President Trump’s so-called “collusion” with Russia.
Please recall that Susan Rice illegally unmasked General Michael Flynn, which set in motion events leading to his resignation as President Trump’s Director of National Intelligence. Her information came through the illegally obtained FISA warrant, which makes Rep. Paul Gosar’s statement ever more significant, as he recently exclaimed: “If you don’t think the unmasking has something to do with the weaponization of our Department of Justice and our intelligence services, think again.
In addition, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Session’s Justice Department investigation, of this criminal FISA abuse, uncovered texts between former counterintelligence expert Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, his mistress and FBI attorney, in which they spoke of an “insurance policy” and a seeming plot to undermine President Trump’s administration. Both of them served briefly on Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference; but Strzok also led the FBI probe into Hillary Clinton’s private email server and he was involved in opening the 2016 investigation into election meddling. And the day after the election, one finds a text between Strzok and Page saying, “Perhaps this is the first meeting of the secret society”
Looking at the texts, at one point, Strzok writes Page: “I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s [Andrew McCabe?] office that there is no way he gets elected. But I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re forty.”
The FBI’s investigation into Russian government interference in the election began in July 2016, just weeks before Strzok’s text. This looks increasingly like a plan was already in place to sink the Trump presidency, if he won, even though they thought any Trump victory would be unlikely. This was their motivation and the smoking gun that illustrates FBI corruption and bias against President Trump.
More importantly, despite FBI Counterintelligence Director Bill Priestap‘s “suggestion” not to notify Congress, shouldn’t FBI Director James Comey have told Congressional oversight that he was investigating presidential candidate Trump, as protocol dictates? Or, was Comey too hiding the fact that the FBI was running a counterintelligence operation against a presidential candidate, president – elect Donald Trump and then a sitting President of the United States Donald Trump?
The known facts alone speak of such egregious crimes against America and the people’s sacred trust, that they warrant lengthy prison sentences and even executions, depending on one’s degree of complicity. All of these conspirators must be identified and punished accordingly, made to face a day of reckoning, and this does not end well for America until this is done.
Representative Matt Gaetz correctly observed: “I believe there are people who will go to jail. You don’t get to try to undermine our country, undermine our elections, and then simply get fired.”
In 1961, President Kennedy stated: “The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings … Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it.”
Dangerous times demand serious answers for America, which is under assault by domestic enemies. Evil men and women, aspiring dictators and apparatchiks of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, without any respect for our U.S. Constitution and America’s founding principles, have actively sought to usurp the will of the American people and a duly elected U.S. president. Their intents and purposes could not have been executed without Obama’s imprimatur and specific orders, as they cast the die and betrayed America, and, down to the last conspirator, they must be ruthlessly exposed, by releasing the memo, if we are to save our Republic.
Tim Brown at Freedom Outpost discusses the reaction of Sharyl Attkisson to the Dems and the Dem-supporting allies in the FBI and DOJ stonewalling on the Republican members of the House Intel Committee desire to release the FISA Memo put together by the Chairman Rep. Gerald Nunes which exposes criminal conspiracy in those departments.
Brown’s analytical thoughts on Attkisson are spot-on. I should say Attkisson is spot-on. She insightfully claims Conservatives are asking the wrong question pertaining to the release of the FISA Memo. Here’s quote from an Attkisson Tweet:
“The main story isn’t about what they allegedly did to try to stop Trump. It’s *why.* It’s about what they feared Trump & Co. would expose.”
Before I get to the Brown post, I think it will help the reader to know a little about Sharyl Attkisson. She worked at CBS for over two decades until ran afoul with the network over her investigative reporting on (treasonous) President Barack Hussein Obama over Benghazigate. No matter what the MSM may paint her to be in her present incarnation as a reporter she has an awesome journalistic pedigree indicating she is no slouch investigator. First a little bio info from Wikipedia:
Sharyl Attkisson (born January 26, 1961[4]) is an American author and host of the weekly Sunday public affairs program Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson, which airs on television stations operated by the Sinclair Broadcast Group.[5] She was formerly an investigative correspondent in the Washington bureau for CBS News. She had also substituted as anchor for the CBS Evening News. She resigned from CBS News on March 10, 2014, after 21 years with the network. Her book Stonewalled reached number 3 on The New York Times e-book non-fiction best seller list in November 2014[6] and number 5 on The New York Times combined print and e-book non-fiction best-seller list the same week.[7]
…
… Her step-father is an orthopedic surgeon, and her brother is an emergency roomphysician. Attkisson graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in broadcast journalism in 1982.[9]
Career
Attkisson began her broadcast journalism career in 1982, aged 22, as a reporter at WUFT-TV, the PBS station in Gainesville, Florida. She later worked as an anchor and reporter at WTVX-TV Fort Pierce/West Palm Beach, Florida from 1982–1985, WBNS-TV, the CBS affiliate in Columbus, Ohio from 1985–86, and WTVT Tampa, Florida (1986–1990).[10]
1990s
From 1990–1993, Attkisson was an anchor for CNN, and also served as a key anchor for CBS space exploration coverage in 1993.[11] Attkisson left CNN in 1993,[12] moving to CBS, where she anchored the television news broadcast CBS News Up to the Minute and became an investigative correspondent based in Washington, D.C.[10]
She served on the University of Florida‘s Journalism College Advisory Board (1993–1997) and was its chair in 1996.[10] The University gave her an Outstanding Achievement Award in 1997. From 1997 to 2003, Attkisson simultaneously hosted CBS News Up to the Minute and the PBS health-news magazine HealthWeek.[13]
In 2002, she co-authored a … READ THE REST (Sharyl Attkisson; Wikipedia; page was last edited 12/31/17 12:46)
Well, that’s Attkisson’s pedigree. Now read a bit of the details that has probably made her anathema among the typical Leftist MSM outlets:
Sharyl Attkisson is an investigative journalist who became the story when she quit CBS News after two decades amid allegations that the network refused to run some of her stories that were critical of President Barack Obama. Ahead of the Tuesday release of her book Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama’s Washington, she spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about her struggles with CBS executives and her assertion that her computers were hacked, possibly by Obama operatives.
…
Who did you tell at CBS that your computers were hacked?
The first person I spoke to was Washington bureau chief Chris Isham.
Did he believe you?
He appeared to.
Did CBS care? Did they do anything about it?
God, you know, there’s a lot of people there. He seemed to care. He hired a separate computer forensics firm to look at the computers. They, too, agreed that there had been highly sophisticated remote intrusion of my computers. They decided to dig deeper and embark upon a process that spanned a number of months, during which time the situation with the Associated Press and the government spying on Fox News reporter James Rosen was disclosed, as well as Edward Snowden’s NSA information.
Did they ever find out who hacked your computers and spied on you?
I don’t believe their computer forensics team concluded who spied on me.
Did they ask anybody in the Obama administration if they were the culprits?
Not to my knowledge. Executives discussed with me that they assumed that was the case. And we discussed how to proceed with that information and what we could do about it.
So what did you do about it?
It seemed to fall off the radar after the forensics report was delivered to CBS. And so I hired a — I have a legal and forensics team that began work.
Did they conclude anything yet?
Yes. Her work is still very much active, but they have told me they have evidence of highly sophisticated remote intrusions into my personal and work computers by someone using software proprietary to a government agency.
…
Do you believe that people working for the president of the United States hacked your computer and spied on you?
The way you phrase the question makes me want to couch it a little bit. I have been told by two computer forensics experts that a highly sophisticated entity using abilities outside non-government resources, using software proprietary either to the DIA, CIA, FBI or NSA made repeat remote intrusions into both my computers over a period of time. And we have evidence of a government computer connection into my computer system.
…
Did your colleagues give you grief about your negative stories on Obama?
Not my reporter colleagues.
But you have said your bosses kind of shut down a lot of your reporting?
Some of them did. It was very complicated. All of them encouraged my reporting initially, and then as time went on some of them encouraged it and some of them discouraged it.
Who were the ones discouraging it?
Nobody ever discouraged it to my face, they just would not run the stories or would have other stories they wanted to put on every time the stories were offered. That was CBS News with Scott Pelley and his executive producer Pat Shevlin primarily, but there may have been others.
…
It sounds like you’ve been telling me that journalists at CBS who don’t toe a certain line have something to fear there. Is that the case at other networks, too?
I’m not sure we have anything to fear. It’s just that if you want to keep working there, you may not be doing what you want to do. In my case it was not being willing to do what they wanted me to do, or disagreeing with it so much that I just would rather move on. I don’t think reporters are fearful, per se, but I think they will tell you at the other networks that it’s getting more difficult to get original and hard-nosed stories on, especially if they don’t fit with the narrative that the gatekeepers in New York are trying to portray. … READ ENTIRETY (Former CBS News Reporter Sharyl Attkisson Claims Existence of Obama Enemies’ List; By Paul Bond; HollywoodReporter.com; 11/3/2014 11:00 PM PST)
In a tweet on Wednesday, Attkisson wrote, “My take for what little it’s worth: The main story isn’t about what they allegedly did to try to stop Trump. It’s *why.* It’s about what they feared Trump & Co. would expose. I think that will turn out to be the bigger can of worms.”
My take for what little it's worth: The main story isn't about what they allegedly did to try to stop Trump. It's *why.* It's about what they feared Trump & Co. would expose. I think that will turn out to be the bigger can of worms.
She was then asked, “Is the [Robert] Mueller Investigations real purpose is to cover up the FBI/DOJ mistakes, attempting to bring down a sitting President?”
Attkisson replied, “I believe the better question is *why* some bad actors in intel community were so panicked at the thought of Trump being president, bringing in people who would examine what they’ve been doing the past 15+ years.”
I believe the better question is *why* some bad actors in intel community were so panicked at the thought of Trump being president, bringing in people who would examine what they've been doing the past 15+ years. https://t.co/Q8yIq8mog3
Attkisson went on to tweet, “It’s fair to say there’s panic among some bad actors within our intel agencies who are now pulling out all the stops to try to spin Congress & the media & keep from getting inside. That kind of panic can lead to mistakes being made.”
“Interesting to see “open govt.” groups & advocates pressing to keep “the memo” secret. This may be unprecedented.” she added.
Interesting to see "open govt." groups & advocates pressing to keep "the memo" secret. This may be unprecedented. 2/2
She did follow up her tweets with an op-ed at The Hill in which she asked:
What happens when federal agencies accused of possible wrongdoing — also control the alleged evidence against them? What happens when they’re the ones in charge of who inside their agencies — or connected to them — ultimately gets investigated and possibly charged?
She then followed up with two very important issues to keep in mind during the investigation.
Those questions are moving to the forefront as the facts play out in the investigations into our intelligence agencies’ surveillance activities.
There are two overarching issues.
First, there’s the alleged improper use of politically-funded opposition research to justify secret warrants to spy on U.S. citizens for political purposes.
Second, if corruption is ultimately identified at high levels in our intel agencies, it would necessitate a re-examination of every case and issue the officials touched over the past decade — or two — under administrations of both parties.
This is why I think the concerns transcend typical party politics.
It touches everybody. It’s potentially monumental.
Of course, she pointed out that not only are there people in the Justice Department, as well as Congress, trying to stop the FISA memo from being presented to the public, but even media outlets and reporters are attempting to keep it secret.
She wrote, “Meantime, the Department of Justice has officially warned the House Intelligence Committee not to release its memo. It’s like the possible defendant in a criminal trial threatening prosecutors for having the audacity to reveal alleged evidence to the judge and jury.”
“This is the first time I can recall open government groups and many reporters joining in the argument to keep the information secret,” she added. “They are strangely uncurious about alleged improprieties with implications of the worst kind: Stasi-like tactics used against Americans. ‘Don’t be irresponsible and reveal sources and methods,’ they plead.”
She then followed up with what everyone should agree on simply because we don’t have two Constitutions, but one.
“As for me? I don’t care what political stripes the alleged offenders wear or whose side they’re on,” she wrote. “If their sources and methods are inappropriate, they should be fully exposed and stopped.”
Indeed, and they should be prosecuted. The why is important, but the simple violations of the law are enough that indictments and arrests should be taking place.
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Intro to The Main Story Is Not What They Did To Stop Trump, It’s Why
John R, Houk, Editor
Posted January 26, 2018
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Investigative Journalist Sharyl Attkisson: “The Main Story Is Not What They Did To Stop Trump, It’s Why”
Yesterday I stumbled upon a Fox News story in which Dems Senator Feinstein and Rep. Schiff have publicly called for Twitter, Facebook and now I read – Google, to investigate Russian bots spreading the meme #ReleaseTheMemo. My least favorite Fox host Shepherd Smith seemed to move story to agree with the Dems. Here’s the 4:30 minute segment on Youtube:
Rep. Schiff and Sen. Feinstein say the classified memo prepared by staffers working for Devin Nunes is misleading and is being pushed online as part of a smear campaign against law enforcement officials investigating Team Trump; insight from Axios reporter Alayna Treene.
FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as … READ THE REST
In essence my first reaction the Dems were trying to get off the hook about corruption among Obama/Hillary cadres in the FBI and DOJ. Indeed, after Googling “Russian Bots,” I found MSM after MSM site pushing the Dem meme of Russian Bots. Just like loyal Leftist Pravda spreading Communist propaganda, the MSM pushed the Dem assertion Russia was involved in the American legal system to taint the FBI and the Mueller investigation purportedly investigating the Trump Campaign for President colluded with Russia to win said Campaign.
I felt the Dems were pulling the Russia-Russia-Russia load of crap to deflect from the real collusion story of Dems and Dem-favoring FBI and DOJ trying to discredit President Trump for an idiotic excuse to impeach him on FALSE evidence.
It turns out I am CORRECT! The Daily Caller picked up on a story from the Left-leaning Daily Beast which substantiates that an overwhelming majority of the viral message of “#ReleaseTheMail” was driven by red-blooded Americans rather than Russian Bots:
A knowledgeable source says that Twitter’s internal analysis has thus far found that authentic American accounts, and not Russian imposters or automated bots, are driving #ReleaseTheMemo. There are no preliminary indications that the Twitter activity either driving the hashtag or engaging with it is either predominantly Russian.
Now you realize that Twitter management is not exactly a Right-leaning Social Platform, right? Ergo, you must understand that the Dems – particularly Senator Feinstein and Rep. Schiff – are calling for Twitter, Facebook and Google to censor Conservative dialog on the Social Platforms used by Americans.
The best details I have found pertaining to the Dem Fake News propaganda trying to Censor my fellow Conservatives is at The Federalist.
UNITED STATES – JUNE 16: Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., speaks during a news conference in the Capitol on Democratic on gun control measures, June 16, 2016. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
Last week Republicans began to call for the release of a memo authored by House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes that purports to lay out a series of abuses connected to the FBI surveillance of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. As often happens these days, a Twitter hashtag evolved around the effort, #ReleaseTheMemo, and was widely retweeted by Republicans and elected officials.
It didn’t take long for a report to emerge claiming that Russian-sponsored Twitter accounts and bots were the real driving force behind the viral call for the release of the memo. Without worrying about the veracity of this convenient claim, all the usual suspects giddily spread the story across social media — probably because they have such a deep reverence for truth in the Era of Trump.
The report also prompted Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Adam Schiff, both Democrats, to pull out every fearmongering catchphrase available to demand that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg perform an “in-depth forensic examination” on the “ongoing attack by the Russian government through Kremlin-linked social media actors directly acting to intervene and influence our democratic process.”
It’s difficult, it seems, for some people to embrace neutral principles nowadays. But if you genuinely believe that Donald Trump’s distasteful tweets are attacks on the foundations of free expression, how can you not be alarmed by a pair of powerful elected officials demanding social media companies hand over information about their users? What would they say if the president had sent a letter to Google insisting they give the executive branch an “in-depth forensic examination” of his political opponent’s searches?
As it turns out, reports today say that Twitter’s internal analysis found that it was mostly Americans, not creepy Slavic mind-control robots, who were behind the hashtags. Not that it really matters, anyway. If a group of Americans have a legitimate issue to rally around, how are they supposed to control what outsiders do? It’s not as if #ReleaseTheMemo was a secret or illegal. Republican politicians were openly using it.
Yet, if Feinstein and Schiff had their way, Twitter and Facebook would have moved to quash the #ReleaseTheMemo hashtag for what turned out to be apparently solely partisan reasons. Sounds like a power that can be abused. Even if the two had been genuinely troubled by Russian hashtags — yes, suspend your disbelief — the source of fake news is not always easily discernible. Sometimes it comes to you from an anonymous Russian bot, and sometimes it’s retweeted by a prominent journalist.
Democrats have manufactured panic over amateurish Russian propaganda to not only claim that Vlad Putin was “meddling” in the election, but also to argue that interference had the power to turn the election to Trump. With this risible idea in hand, they have created paranoia about social media interactions and rationalized infringements on expression.
Not long before demanding forensic investigations into hashtags, Feinstein was demanding Twitter, Facebook, and Google more tightly restrict its content, threatening, “Do something about it — or we will.” Democrats have attempted to control interactions through Fairness Doctrines or the IRS, and now the Russia scare. Part of living in a free country is dealing with messy, ugly misinformation.
The difference an ocean makes: UK Prime Minister announces rapid response unit to tackle 'fake news': https://t.co/kL54AWeaC8 – via:@pressgazette
Lots of people in the United States seem pretty impressed by how they do things in Europe. In Britain, Prime Minister Theresa May is launching “a rapid response unit” run by the state to “battle the proliferation of ‘fake news’ online.” A “National Security Communications Unit” will be tasked to combat misinformation — as if it has either the power or ability to do so. In France, President Emmanuel Macron is working on a plan to combat “fake news,” which includes the power to “emergency block” websites during elections. What could possibly go wrong.
Me? I’d rather we live with Russian troll bots feeding us nonsense than authoritarian senators dictating how we consume news. I mean, has anyone yet produced a single voter who lost his or her free will during the 2016 election because he had a Twitter interaction with an employee of a St. Petersburg troll farm? Or do voters tend to seek out the stories that back their own worldviews?
If your argument is that American are uninformed and easily misled, I’m with you. Just look at all the people who believe that a $46,000 buy on Facebook by the Russians was enough to destroy the pillars of our democracy. But if you want to live in a free and vibrant nation, you have to live with the externalities of that freedom.
Long ago I subscribed to Joshua Pundit. I can’t even remember the last time I received a subscription email from Joshua Pundit. In sifting through some of my unread email I found a Joshua Pundit email dated 1/22/18. BUT it was not the typical JP email I recall from the past. Evidently, the JP blog began running feeds from another Conservative blog called Wow! Magazine. Normally that kind of thing kind of irks me. However, this time I am pleased.
Pseudonymous blogger “Bookworm” writes about being a Conservative that has Liberal friends. Bookworm is highly aware of the news coming from Conservative sources and Conservative social media discussions. Bookworm is astounded by the lack of knowledge among her Liberal friends concerning the worst corruption scandal in American history surrounding Obama, Crooked Hillary, the FBI (Mueller, Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Page & others), DOJ (Lynch, Rosenstein & probably others), Dem Party, Leftist MSM AND God only knows who else to date.
Bookworm reasons is the active misinformation, lies and Leftist pro-Dem bias of the Mainstream Media reporting delusions about President Trump and illogical media exoneration of Crooked Hillary and the Obama Administration.
Think about! The Obama Administration spent eight years of favorable poll ratings even as scandal after scandal hammered it. Why? The Leftist MSM lied about the scandals, twisted the info to make the scandals the object of Conservative disinformation or simply did not report any details at all.
Bookworm uses an example MSM Leftist propaganda by its coverage of the Leftist Woman’s March as opposed to the Pro-life Woman’s March for life. If you talk to a Liberal and they are intransient about how good Obama & cadres are while condemning all things Trump even after the American economy is flourishing more in a year of the Trump Administration than eight years of the Obama Administration.
If the House releases the Nunes memo proving an Obama scandal, but the media refuses to cover it, will Americans believe that no scandal ever happened?
Unlike many of my readers, who seem to live in more conservative communities and have like-minded friends, I’ve spent my entire life in Democrat enclaves. Whether I meet the gals for coffee, walk the dogs with a friend, or open my Facebook feed, I am inundated with Progressive-think — everything from Trump-Hitler (an amped-up of version of Bush-Hitler), to “we must open our border to third world immigrants” (or, as some wit called them “Turd world” immigrants), to the fact that we are in imminent danger of freezing, drowning, boiling, dehydrating, etc. to death because of anthropogenic climate change.
Because of my social circles, I’m also aware that I inhabit a very different factual universe than my friends do. In my view, the government shutdown occurred because Democrats, a Senate minority, refused to give Republicans, the majority, the votes needed to pass a budget unless Republicans gave amnesty to over 3 million illegal aliens (or, as we can more accurately call them, future Democrat voters). In other words, Democrats are putting illegal aliens’ interests ahead of American interests.
It’s an entirely different story on the other side of the aisle, though. According to my Progressive friends, the shutdown came about because Republicans stubbornly refused to provide healthcare for poor children. As always, even when talking about abortion, the Democrats doing it for the children.
Two different universes.
Which gets me to the Nunes memo. The memo, which is highly classified, purportedly contains Rep. Devin Nunes’ conclusions, based upon viewing other classified material, that the Obama administration, the Hillary campaign, and the DNC, were up to their eyeballs in highly illegal surveillance activity directed against Donald Trump, all in an effort to destroy his candidacy and place Hillary in the White House. If true, the Obama scandal instantly turns Watergate into Nothing-gate, and reveals an attack on America’s representative democracy the likes of which we’ve never seen before.
In my conservative world (blogs, emails, and conservative Facebook groups), everyone is talking about the Nunes memo’s potential finally to reveal a vast Obama scandal. In my Progressive world, though, no one is talking about it at all. You know why? They don’t know about it. The mainstream media is either ignoring the Nunes memo or completely downplaying it. CNN’s take is that it’s just partisan game-playing, proving nothing.
This is the same Leftist media, of course, that thinks that, when Glenn Simpson’s testimony to the effect that based on no evidence whatsoever but some hatred and gut instincts, “I think Trump is laundering money,” this is the precise equivalent of “Trump is laundering money.” It’s also the same Leftist media that, in the case of the New York Times, put the Abu Ghraib story on the front page for 47 separate days, even though few new facts emerged to justify this time of coverage. Somehow the Times never found the same enthusiasm for the IRS scandal, Fast & Furious, Obamacare lies, spying on journalists (which is, apparently, less bad than hurting their feelings), Benghazi, Hillary’s secret server, etc. All of those got the “bottom of page B47” treatment.
Another example of Leftist priorities in covering news is the difference between the way at least one paper covered the March for Life yesterday in Washington, D.C., versus today’s Women’s Marches. According to Fox News, the March yesterday was expected to attract 100,000 people. That’s a lot of people. Here’s a time-lapse video, which is impressive:
President Trump addressed the march, the first time a sitting president has done so. That’s big news. And yet the San Francisco Chronicle, which covers Trump compulsively when it comes to Big Macs, white trucks, and feeding Japanese fish, ignored his speech entirely yesterday, at least as of 3:30 P.S.T., when I grabbed this screen shot of my “March for Life” at the SFGate website. And no, you’re not imagining that they only stories go back to 2017 and 2016, and that the lead for 2017 is that Pence condemned abortion, rather than the fact that around 100,000 people, many young, showed up to make a point:
As a San Francisco native who grew up reading the Comical, it wasn’t until the internet came along that I even knew there was a March for Life taking place in American cities, including my home town.
Four more slightly random points regarding this weekend’s marches before I get back to my point about media coverage or, rather, its absence.
First point is that, on my Facebook feed, I’ve seen Progressives castigating Trump as a hypocrite because he used to support abortion. I also used to support it wholeheartedly. Now, I’m mostly pro-Life, probably for the same reason President Trump is: We looked into the abortion abyss and pulled back, repulsed.
Abortion today is not about liberating women. It’s about death and, often, about minority deaths. It’s a slippery slope that devalues life until we become a place of upside down values in which Nancy Pelosi, an ostensible Catholic, claims abortion is sacred. This is just so morally wrong, I don’t want to be a party to it anymore and I don’t think Trump does either. People do grow and change.
Second point is that, if you haven’t seen it yet, Trump put out a magnificent tweet trolling those silly women’s marchers:
Beautiful weather all over our great country, a perfect day for all Women to March. Get out there now to celebrate the historic milestones and unprecedented economic success and wealth creation that has taken place over the last 12 months. Lowest female unemployment in 18 years!
How can #NeverTrumpers not see beyond their own prejudices to the wonders of this president? And how can #NeverTrumpers, Democrats, Progressives, and the whole cohort of people arrayed against Trump continue to call him stupid?
They are political Barbie dolls in pink hats trying to give meaning to their empty plastic boring lives by bashing President Trump. In-crowd membership requires spewing anti-Trump talking points, pledging to always vote democrat and emasculating their husbands. The women who choose to dress as giant vaginas at the marches simply have more issues than there is room to describe in this article.
[snip]
The truly despicable women are the Queen Bees epitomized by Hillary Clinton, Linda Sarsour and Meryl Streep. ‘Queen Bees’ are women who do not mind living in a man’s world as long as they can hold power and position in it. Unlike mean girls and nasty women, cliques, popularity and protests are just a means to an end. They do not want to empower women, just the opposite, they perpetuate institutionalized sexism, so they can use it to their advantage. To earn power, these women exploit women’s issues, protect sexual predators and step on the heads of other women even if they are wearing pussyhats.
Fourth point is that Scott Adams thinks that the Republicans are doing some magnificent trolling of their own with the Nunes memo. They don’t need to release it, he says. They just need to gossip about it. I’d like there to be a blazing fire behind this smoke, but Adams has a point that the smoke will get some good traction too even if we never see the fire.
And now back to my main point, which is whether the Nunes memo revealing a vast Obama scandal (assuming that’s what it does) will matter as either smoke or fire if the media refuses to acknowledge the memo. A friend said that Progressive publications will be forced to acknowledge it if people are led out of the FBI building and other government offices in handcuffs. I don’t agree. I think that, should arrests happen, Lefties will just start saying, “See?! We told you Trump was a fascist. He’s worse than Erdogan. He really is Hitler.”
Most people are headline readers. If the media spins the headlines or refuses to cover something at all, for most people, it hasn’t happened, or it’s happened in the way the media said.
I think America’s media is the answer to that philosophical question asking whether a tree makes a sound if it falls in a forest but there is no one there to hear it fall. If the media plugs our ears and covers our eyes, not only does the tree not make a sound, it doesn’t even fall.
As always, I am interested in what you think. I don’t often throw in my own two-cents when people comment (mostly because anything I had to say is in my post already), but I do read every comment, and I learn something from most of them.
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MSM Ignores Facts & Liberal Voters are Dumbed Down
Bookworm came late to conservativism but embraced it with passion. She’s been blogging since 2004 about anything that captures her fancy — and that’s usually politics. Her blog’s motto is “Conservatives deal with facts and reach conclusions; liberals have conclusions and sell them as facts.”
So what’s this all about? Who and what is the Watcher’s Council?
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As of the moment I’m typing this, Schumer and Pelosi have been leading the Dems in a government shutdown in extortion for absolute amnesty for Illegal Aliens while giving ZERO that the Republican majority has electorally promised.
I see this as deflection for two things the Dems fear:
1. The Dem promised Armageddon over Trump tax-cuts NEVER came; indeed, a booming economy has arisen in the stock market and for middle class employees pay raises and/or bonuses have mushroomed to benefit family living.
2. The worst Dem fear is news that will undoubtedly affect the 2018 mid-term election to the benefit of the GOP. The basis of Dem fear is a 4-page mem exposing criminal corruption by FBI/DOJ Dem-favoring agents planning a fake evidence against President Trump.
In the first instance, even after lying Dem propaganda, the evidence economic prosperity is too huge for the MSM to cover-up from the public.
In the second instance, the lying Dem propaganda machine is being fired up to discredit the 4-page FISA Memo as either distorted or based on mitigating other evidence making to the Memo much too difficult for the stupid public (Dem thinking – NOT GOP!) to comprehend correctly.
ERGO, if you are stupid join the Dems in preventing the public from knowing how corrupt the American Left has made agencies created to keep harm from the public. IF you a part of the brilliant public of WE THE PEOPLE and desire a voice on how government is operated, then DEMAND your Congressman to release the FISA Memo and make the appropriate vote in November 2018.
Your Zip will take your Congressman providing snail mail address and phone number. If you look for the envelope symbol and click it you will be taken to an electronic method of contacting your Representative (either a contact form or email. Matt Forney provides a sample script for speaking to your Congressman or the Congressman’s phone gatekeeper.
Below is a Facebook post that inspired my thoughts. Below that is a couple of Gateway Pundit posts. The Gateway Pundit is following the FISA Memo issue closely. I suggest you visit often.
Tick..Tock..Tick..Tock. America, are you ready for a great shock?? No. It’s not about the expected Schumer Shutdown. I speak of the FISA Memo that will in short time be released to the public who have a right to know. It’s called transparency. Those on the Intel Committee who have read are shocked by the abuse of power that they did see. No one in the TYRANT’S regime ever thought that this four page document would ever see the light of day. Apparently those who were part of this criminal conspiracy never heard that CRIME DOES NOT PAY.
In the criminal syndicate that is run by Bill and Dastardly Hillary they always seem to get away with any and all accountability. This time it will be a tad different. They and those in the FBI will not get away free. You can comprise your list of those who will be tainted. Never since the days of Watergate has there been a scandal like this. We are told that the scope of this is far and wide. Before long we will have a picture before us that is fully painted. It is said that assumptions should not be made for when you do it can lead to trouble. In the DEEP STATE everyone thought Hillary would surely win. That was the prevailing view in the environs that is the DC bubble.
In a Clinton Presidency everything would have been hidden. But she didn’t win and now a whole of disgusting characters can very well wind up in prison. How ironic it is to find that everyone who boasted about their being not a whiff of scandal in the previous regime will now see exposed one that shows the scope of criminality heretofore never seen. You and I are certainly not surprised to find the eight years of Trump’s predecessor was far from clean and pristine.
It is unfathomable to think that in the days ahead as more and more details are released that this story can be ignored. I am confident that justice will be done. A lack of it we, as a country, can ill afford. My only concern is this Attorney General That we have in place is so weak and hesitant. If he dares to be intimidated by the Democrats from pursuing these alleged criminals we would all find it utterly abhorrent. Can we trust his assistant AG. I certainly doubt he can be trusted. One more thing. If this Mueller Investigation is not ended post haste you will have an America in a fit of rage and thoroughly disgusted!!
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Sara Carter: Explosive FISA Memo Could Be Released to the Public THIS WEEK! (VIDEO)
On Saturday Rep. Dave Joyce announced Saturday that the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSIC) had launched the process to release the explosive FBI-FISA-Russia classified memo.
Great news! Our efforts to #ReleaseTheMemo have been effective and the HPSIC plans to begin the process to release the FBI/FISA/Russia memo. This may take up to 19+ Congressional work days but Americans deserve to know the truth.
The 4 page memo contains evidence that the Obama administration used FISA warrants to spy on both the Trump campaign and transition team — charges Obama officials have long denied.
On Sunday morning investigative reporter Sara Carter told FOX and Friends Weekend that the memo could be released to the public this week.
Sara Carter: The House Intelligence Committee is going to hold another vote. This vote will be made for the public… They’re sure it’s going to pass because Republicans are going to pass on the party line to make this available to the public. Then the memo will go to the president where the president will have five days to decide whether or not to declassify the memo. And what I’m being told from my sources he will declassify that memo for the public. They’re actually hoping the memo gets declassified very soon, the latest I’ve heard is the end of the month but the soonest could be anytime this week.
Investigative reporter Sara Carter went on FOX and Friends on Sunday morning to discuss the explosive memo: Explosive FISA Memo Could Be Released to the Public This Week!]
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Adam Schiff Doesn’t Want FISA Memo Released Because He Thinks Americans Are TOO STUPID To Understand It (VIDEO)
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) joined CNN Saturday to discuss the explosive FISA memo. Asked why he is fighting to keep the report under wraps, the California Democrat said he doubts the American people will understand its contents.
[Blog Editor: The following is a transcript of the video that appears originally at Youtube post but is copy & pasted at the Gateway Pundit. I’m using the GP version because I like the emphasis.]
CABRERA: “Let me ask you about the Russia investigation. I can’t have you here and not. Especially given how much we talked about it in the first year of the presidency. And now if you turn on any conservative media, they keep talking about this Nunez memo, the chairman of the house intelligence committee, that he’s put out there and many Republicans have taken a look at it and they want it made public. Can you tell us what exactly is it?”
SCHIFF: “It is essentially a set of talking points that the Republican Intel staff drafted. Based on the highly classified materials which most of the Republican members were forced to acknowledge. They’ve not even read. So they don’t know how distorted these talking points are. But as part of the narrative they want to push out. Interestingly enough, they’ve made common cause once again with Russian bots because Russian bots are pushing their narrative out there. It’s in a redux of the campaign. We have Assange and Wikileaks and Russian trolls and bots saying, you know, hash tag whatever the GOP narrative is. That ought to tell you a lot about what’s driving this. And that is –”
CABRERA: “Why not allow peel to look at it and let Americans make the decision for themselves about whether it’s useful information or not?”
SCHIFF: “Well, because the American people unfortunately don’t have the underlying materials and therefore they can’t see how distorted and misleading this document is.The Republicans are not saying make the underlying materials available to the public. They just want to make this spin available to the public. I think that spin, which is a attack on the FBI, is just designed to attack the FBI and Bob Mueller to circle the wagons for the White House. And that’s a terrible disservice to the people, hard working people at the bureau, but more than that, it’s a disservice to the country.”
In other words, Schiff believes Americans are too stupid to understand the memo.
As The Gateway Pundit‘s Cristina Laila reported, Schiff is in full blown panic mode as release of the memo looms. The Democrat lawmaker is fiercely working to block Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes from exposing “shocking” FISA abuses that took place during the 2016 presidential election.
The Conservative-Patriot Christian Right 
