The content of the story is less important than the network within it.

The New York Times writes a story about John Durham issuing subpoenas to the Brookings Institute for records of Igor Danchenko’s work there.   Danchenko was Chris Steele’s primary sub-source for the infamous Steele Dossier.

The material provided by Danchenko to Steele was described as unsubstantiated “gossip”, “rumor”, “hearsay” and innuendo by Danchenko himself after he was questioned by the FBI.

New York Times – […] Mr. Durham has keyed in on the F.B.I.’s handling of a notorious dossier of political opposition research both before and after the bureau started using it to obtain court permission to wiretap a former Trump campaign adviser in 2016 and 2017 and questioned witnesses who may have insight into the matter.

In particular, Mr. Durham has obtained documents from the Brookings Institution related to Igor Danchenko, a Russia researcher who worked there a decade ago and later helped gather rumors about Mr. Trump and Russia for that research, known as the Steele dossier, according to people familiar with the request.

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Friend of the Treehouse, Peter Duke, introduced me to this story and it is blood-boiling, yet awesome.

A young man named Lucas Lepejian is in a battle with Burbank authorities who are trying to run him out of business.  Lucas is the 20-year-old son of Baret Lepejian the proprietor of a long-standing western-themed restaurant called Tinhorn Flats; a well known place to dine in Burbank, California.

Local authorities have attempted to shut down Tinhorn Flats repeatedly.  Each time Lucas defies the orders and reopens.

Lucas has been arrested three times in defiance of the ridiculous COVID shutdown.

The issue now is personal, the authorities are intent on destroying his business… Lucas, and a small battalion of supporters, remain defiant.

TIMELINE & DETAILS: Tinhorn Flats is the oldest bar in Burbank.  In March of 2020 they shut down in compliance with state guidelines.   They reopened in November 2020, and when the second lockdown was announced their defiance began.

Burbank authorities first cited and fined Tinhorn Flats.  Lucas refused to pay and stayed open.  Burbank authorities cut their utilities.  Lucas brought in generators and stayed open.   Burbank authorities Red tagged his restaurant and locked the doors.  Lucas cut the locks and reopened.  Burbank authorities boarded up the doors and ‘red tagged’ again as unsafe.  Lucas sawed off the boards and reopened his business.  Burbank police then arrested Lucas.  Lucas made bail and was released.

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Earlier today Joe Biden raised some eyebrows when he said “no amendment to the constitution is absolute.”   The first ten amendments to the constitution are commonly known as “The Bill of Rights.”

The occupant of the oval office, and head of the executive branch, saying the Bill of Rights is not absolute, should be challenged immediately to qualify that statement.

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As a reminder:

♦ Amendment 1
– Freedom of Religion, Speech, and the Press

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

♦ Amendment 2
– The Right to Bear Arms

A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.

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This is long overdue, and worthy of support.  Most CTH readers are now aware what the Lawfare group is all about.  Inside the Lawfare network the far-left political ideologues organize and launch attacks against anything they view as adverse to their interests.  The Lawfare network is made up of Obama ideologues and former DOJ officials who manipulate the legal system for their political agenda.

Many, if not most, of the legal aspects connected to attacks against conservatives stem from inside this Lawfare network.  They operate inside government and outside in the private sector and compliment each other in their unified agenda.  An example was the attack against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh by both groups.

During her Senate testimony Kavanaugh accuser, Christine Blasey-Ford ,called the network her “beach friends” connecting the casual relationship they all carry.  The Lawfare group operate inside the DOJ, inside the FBI, inside the State Department and inside the institutions of government.  They connect ideologically to their allies in the private sector law firms and they share insider information to coordinate their attacks.

The Lawfare group also has a media strategy.  If the inside government group needs to advance a narrative to advance their interests they will leak to media (ex. Lisa Page and Peter Strzok leaking to Devlin Barrett, WSJ); and/or leak to their middle-men outside in the private sector who will leak to media on their behalf (ex James Comey to Daniel Richman who then conveys to the New York Times).

Today, former Senior Advisor Stephen Miller announces his launch of a Lawfare group of his own; a counter force against the conniving leftist objectives.  Miller is calling his MAGA legal network “America First Legal”.

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Interestingly, the alphabet narrative engineers are focused on this trial as they were with George Zimmerman. Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is charged in the May 25, 2020, death of George Floyd.

Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, who died in custody.

Forensic evidence showed that George Floyd died from a “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.” Other significant conditions were listed as “arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease; fentanyl intoxication; recent methamphetamine use.” (link)

A memorandum filed by the Hennepin County Attorney’s office on June 1 indicated that chief medical examiner Dr. Andrew Baker, who listed Floyd’s death as a homicide, thought the amount of fentanyl in Floyd’s blood was “pretty high” and could be “a fatal level of fentanyl under normal circumstances.” “[Dr. Baker] said that if Mr. Floyd had been found dead in his home (or anywhere else) and there were no other contributing factors he would conclude that it was an overdose death,” the memo said.

Yesterday featured testimony as prosecutors continued laying out their case against Chauvin. Jurors watched body camera videos of Floyd’s fatal police encounter. One bystander witness broke down in tears on the stand after watching footage showing officers attempting to force Floyd inside a squad car. Charles McMillian, who was on the sidewalk during the struggle, said he felt “helpless.”

Livestream Links Below for open discussion of this ongoing case.

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Wow.  Big Tech is taking the censorship and deplatforming of President Donald J Trump to entirely new levels according to new information provided by Eric Trump.  In  a twitter message today, Eric Trump shares the following:

(Source)

This is quite a stunning statement from Facebook; even considering the prior ideological position(s) of Big Tech.

If the message is accurate, anyone who speaks on behalf of Donald Trump, and/or anyone show shares communication, statements or official replies from the “voice” of Donald Trump, will have their content removed.  This applies to any/all campaign surrogates and spokespeople for President Trump.

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Jackson County District Judge Michael Klaeren (Michigan 12th District) has removed charges of terrorism against three men accused in a plot to kidnap governor Gretchen Whitmer.  According to the Detroit News, judge Klaeren said: ” “There has to be some form of intent here to incite mayhem”, and no evidence in that regard has been presented.  The terrorism charges fail for lack of evidence.

MICHIGAN – […] The charges were dismissed against Paul Bellar of Milford and Joseph Morrison and Pete Musico of Munith. They are among seven men accused of having ties to the militia group Wolverine Watchmen who are charged in the alleged plot. The others include Shawn Fix of Belleville, Eric Molitor of Cadillac, Michael Null of Plainwell and William Null of Shelbyville. The men had faced a total of 19 felony charges for firearms and terror-related acts.

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OK, before I blow a blood pressure cuff on this issue, please keep in mind the warnings provided on these pages about DHS now starting to assemble lists of dissident citizens under the guise of domestic extremists. {Go Deep}  Also remind yourself the same DHS and FBI are now using private contractors embedded in Big Tech to scour public information on social media and provide feedback to help DHS assemble those lists. {Go Deep}

Now, we take that foundation and build it one step further…. This well-written report about the recent Senate Armed Services Committee discussion with the National Security Agency (NSA) needs to be absorbed with the prior information as context.  These paragraphs are alarming in the extreme (emphasis mine):

[…] “Several members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday voiced their support for expanded authorities for the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command to conduct more intelligence gathering domestically, something that the Biden administration already is exploring, according to Gen. Paul Nakasone, who leads both agencies.”

“Former NSA general counsel Glenn Gertstell has argued that an expansion of NSA authorities to collect domestic intelligence is overdue. “It can’t possibly be the case that the Fourth Amendment ties our hands in such a way that we just have to sit there and watch the Chinese romp through our infrastructure,” he told the Wall Street Journal in March. The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable searches and [NSA Director] Nakasone cited it as a key obstacle to potential expansion of the NSA’s powers domestically.” (read more)

The Fourth Amendment is an “obstacle“?….  WTF kind of outlook is that.

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Apparently the creation of the DOJ’s politically convenient “domestic extremist” narrative is starting to come under scrutiny.  After several federal judges initially granted the DOJ the benefit of doubt for their outlandish conspiratorial claims, now with judges ordering the targets to be released the media are catching on.

The 2021 political prosecutions against the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys are essentially akin to former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s 2018 indictments -on behalf of Mueller/Weissmann- for mysterious Russian operatives that never surfaced and were never prosecuted.

As a result, the conspiracy to engage in sedition is to 2021 as the conspiracy to interfere in the Clinton v Trump election was to 2016 (via Facebook memes).

The Associated Press now recognizes something is sketchy about the DOJ shift.  Somebody might possibly do something, at some place, in relation to something discussed with someone about some time; thus people were arrested for thought crimes.  However, the DOJ cannot show who the somebodies, something or sometime were all about.

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[Bumped by Request /SD]

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is now getting ready to hire public companies, individual contractors outside government, to scour public data and social media in order to provide information for the new “domestic terror watch lists.”  From the description it appears DHS is going to pay “big tech” (Google, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, SnapChat, Twitter, etc.), via contracts, to hire and organize internal monitoring teams to assist the government by sending information on citizens they deem “dangerous.”

Gee, what could possibly go wrong with this?…

NBC is reporting on these new developments as the U.S. intelligence apparatus is preparing to go live with the assembly of lists of Americans who “could be” potential threats to the government; and need to be watched.

However, even NBC is beginning to realize the consequences: “DHS planning to expand relationships with companies that scour public data for intelligence and to better harness the vast trove of data it already collects on Americans. The department is also contemplating changes to its terrorist watch listing process.”

Here’s the article:

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security, created after the 9/11 attacks to protect the country from international terrorism, is moving toward a sweeping set of policy changes aimed at detecting and stopping what intelligence officials say is now a top threat to the homeland: domestic violent extremism.

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