The 2024 GOP primary debate series is a clown show of knuckleheads following the marching orders of the billionaire donors who fund them.  The RNC is the vessel for the illusion of choice game, orchestrated by the same donors.  Watching the remaining candidates try and qualify to be the first loser is, well, pathetic really.

Into this game of nonsense, the RNC delivers the next round of pretentious moderators for the RNC debate in Miami.  I mean, if you are hosting a Republican debate, one might think the RNC would want Republicans as moderators.  Then again, in the era of the professional Uniparty, there’s not much difference.  Condescending pontificating pustule of pomposity, Hugh Hewitt, will rest atop his familiar high horse.  You couldn’t pay me to watch this one.

WASHINGTON – NBC’s Lester Holt and Kristen Welker are set to moderate the third Republican primary debate alongside morning talk show host Hugh Hewitt, NBC announced on Wednesday.

The three will take the stage at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami on Nov. 8, as the remaining GOP presidential hopefuls — those who can qualify — push to break away from the pack in the polls.

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At this point, I am writing this for a whole bunch of people, and it’s ridiculous.

(1) – No, Mark Meadows never told Jack Smith that President Trump didn’t declassify records.  That was the Lawfare leak to ABC News in August – intended to dilute the defense of declassification in the Mar-a-Lago documents case.  It was made up by Jack Smith, and leaked to ABC for a specific purpose.

(2) – No, Mark Meadows never told the DC grand jury (under immunity) that he informed President Trump that Joe Biden’s election was legitimate. Again, that was a Lawfare leak to ABC News this week – intended to undermine President Trump’s DC defense (mens rea, know it) that Trump’s state of mind was such that he knew he was violating the law by saying the election was stolen.  This story was made up by Jack Smith and leaked to ABC for a similar specific purpose.

In reality, Meadows was questioned under oath, during the grand jury, and asked if Joe Biden was the legitimate President.  Meadows responded (encapsulated), “Well, he’s president isn’t he”?  The rest is a manufactured narrative.

(3) – No, Mark Meadows never wore a wire as a confidential informant while he was President Trump’s Chief of Staff.  Again, yet another Lawfare fabrication to the alt-right media, via layers of plausible deniability – intended to get President Trump to attack Mark Meadows and provide fuel for Jack Smith to request the reinitiation of a currently suspended gag order against President Trump.  The ABSURD story is pure Lawfare bait.  The absurdity of the story is why even ABC News couldn’t be used.

And right on cue….

(NYP) – Special Counsel Jack Smith has implored a judge to revive the partial gag order in the federal election interference case against Donald Trump — citing the ex-president’s “threatening” social media posts about former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Smith’s team argued in a filing late Wednesday that Trump, 77, is capitalizing on a stay in the gag order “to send an unmistakable message to a foreseeable witness in this case… with knowledge that it would reach him.” (read more)

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A few thoughts about the letter itself before getting to the substance.  {pdf link Here}

First, as you are likely aware, the Senators and Committee heads/ranking members do little of the investigative effort themselves. This is where the value of exceptional staff comes into play, along with the background battle between a small group of congressional aides and assistants -vs- an army of Lawfare operatives. The battle to reveal truth takes place deep in the trenches of hidden government, and the only weapon on the side of the righteous is the ultimate weapon – the truth.

Second, again with a familiar approach, this letter is not penned to the recipient FBI Director Christopher Wray, in as much as it is an alarm sounded by Senator Grassley’s office to the larger American audience.  This is essentially Grassley saying to We The People, here’s the evidence of how inherently corrupt and politicized the FBI has become. The motive appears to be providing damaging information the media will avoid mentioning, discussing or outlining.

DC FBI Building, left – Main Justice DOJ Building, right. 

In summary of the 7-page letter, it describes a national effort by the FBI to cover up the activity of Hunter and Joe Biden’s illicit financial dealings.  Because the Biden family essentially operated a network of financial schemes that touched on multiple areas and interests, the activity itself was tracked by the FBI through a series of several dozen Confidential Human Sources (CHS’s) and informants in multiple jurisdictions throughout the U.S.

Because the various field offices and CHS/Informant networks were diverse and widespread, the DC FBI needed a control mechanism that would throw a bag over all the activity coast to coast.  The mechanism they chose was the familiar “Foreign Influence Disinformation” designation.  The FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force was the DC organization -an institutional tool per se’- used to block, impede and eliminate sunlight upon the information that was surfacing from multiple investigations of the Biden family.

Grassley walks through examples of how the central HQ of the FBI deployed the label of “disinformation” in order to get various field offices to discredit their own investigative tools, CHS’s and informants.   The way it worked would be central FBI command would label an investigative lead as “disinformation”, and that would throw a bag over the field office outcome.  The CHS’s and informants were then undermined, discredited and cut loose from the record keeping of the FBI.

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Sheesh, talk about the timing of two different articles.  Politico reported yesterday that CDC officials admit only 3% of eligible Americans have chosen to get the latest COVID-19 booster shot, although there could be some delay in reporting.

WASHINGTON – The Biden administration’s campaign to convince Americans to get an annual Covid shot is off to a very slow start.  Even so, the nation’s top disease-fighting official says the U.S. remains “on track” to hit last year’s uptake levels, which crested at just 17 percent of the U.S. population. (more)

Today, the FDA announces when COVID booster is combined with Flu shot, there is a slight elevated risk of blood clots causing stroke in people over the age 85.

CNN –  Vaccines for Covid-19 and influenza may slightly increase the risk of strokes caused by blood clots in the brains of seniors, particularly when the two vaccines are given at the same time and when they are given to adults who are age 85 and older, according to a new study.

The safety signal was detected by experts at the US Food and Drug Administration who analyzed data from Medicare claims.

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Justice Arthur Engoron is truly one of the most ridiculous judges on the bench.

During a break in the courtroom theatrics, following testimony by Michael Cohen, President Trump told the media, “This judge is a very partisan judge with a person who’s very partisan sitting alongside of him, perhaps even much more partisan than he is.”  President Trump was clearly remarking about Michael Cohen who was on the witness stand.

However, Moonbat Judge Engoron then demanded President Trump take the witness stand so he could ask him who those comments were directed toward.  With Trump on the witness stand, the judge asked: “To whom were you referring?”  “You and Cohen,” Trump replied.

The judge then said he did not believe Trump, “as the trier of fact, I find the witness is not credible“, he decreed from his perch; preferring to believe that President Trump was talking about Judge Engoron’s clerk.    The idiot in a robe then levied another $10,000 sanction based on his wrongful assumption of President Trump’s thinking.

This is all far too ridiculous at this point.

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Louisiana Republican Mike Johnson won the vote and has become Speaker of the House of Representatives.  This is a huge shift in momentum for the MAGA base, for common sense pragmatic voters, and for the overall direction of our national body politic.

Speaker Johnson delivered a humble, gracious and fantastic speech after the vote.  WATCH:

WASHINGTON DC – The fourth-term Louisianan sailed to victory with 220 votes, more than the 215 he needed to be elected speaker on the House floor. The final vote on the first ballot was 220-209.

Johnson’s win marked a stunning turnaround after more than three weeks of chaotic limbo in the House following the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the demise of three other failed speaker candidates. He did not lose a single GOP vote from lawmakers who were present; Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) is in Israel and did not attend the balloting.

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This is deep weeds inside baseball, but boy howdy does it tell a story. Representative Matt Gaetz (MAGA, FL) goes through the details of yesterday’s House republican conference assembly as they select a Speaker nominee.

What Gaetz reveals in detail is how Kevin McCarthy has been working the conference to undermine any other Speaker candidate so that McCarthy would be renominated as the only possible alternative. The insight and details are really interesting. This is a must watch.

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If Mike Johnson (R-LA) cannot carry the conference, look for the professionally Republican Kevin McCarthy wing to reassemble and attempt reinstallation.

WASHINGTON DC – Rep. Mike Johnson won a closed-door contest on Tuesday night to become his party’s fourth speaker nominee.

Now, the Louisiana lawmaker faces the much tougher task of securing the 217 votes he needs to win on the House floor. Earlier Tuesday, Johnson came in second to Majority Whip Tom Emmer, who then withdrew after former President Donald Trump publicly came out against him.

So, Republicans went back to the drawing board, and made Johnson the latest aspirant to a position the fractured and exhausted conference can’t seem to fill. He beat out a field of four other candidates, including Byron Donalds in the final ballot by a 128 to 29 vote. Some 44 other Republicans didn’t vote for either of the two men.

After winning the nomination, Johnson said he was “very confident” that he could get 217 votes and said “the intention is to go to the floor” for a vote on Wednesday. (more)

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Too many people continue falling for this Lawfare nonsense.   CTH has been outlining what Lawfare operations are all about since we deconstructed the Trayvon Martin narrative.  Perhaps a reminder is useful.

Lawfare, in its most obvious construct, is not a legal approach per se’, it is the intentional manipulation of the legal system to create the optics around information that is intended to be used by media to influence public opinion. {link}

That’s what Lawfare is all about, manipulating public opinion through leaks to the media.  The leaks do not need to be truthful, accurate or directly in line with the prosecution of the case; they are intended exclusively to manipulate public opinion.

Remember, on August 21st, in another ridiculous Lawfare operation, Special Counsel Jack Smith told ABC that Mark Meadows testified that President Trump never attempted to declassify any information {Go Deep}.   That report was transparently false, yet the media ran with it and multiple alternative media promoted it.  Pure nonsense.

In this latest Lawfare effort, again from Special Counsel Jack Smith, again to ABC news, again about former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, the claim is the Special Counsel granted Meadows immunity (that’s the hook), and that Meadows told President Trump the 2020 election was not rigged or stolen.

Now remember, Mark Meadows wrote about the rigged and stolen 2020 election in his book, so why would he undermine his own story by saying something completely the opposite to Jack Smith that is only coming out now?   The Occam’s razor answer is, he didn’t.  This lawfare story is all made up, fictitious, anonymous sources, manufactured to create a public impression.

Bolstering the likelihood that Meadows gave no such testimony, Meadows lawyers, when contacted by media, said the story is fake news.   Yet again, everyone falls for it.  This is how Lawfare succeeds, and this is how Trayvon Martin’s fake and fabricated ear-witness girlfriend becomes the key witness and embarrasses the prosecution on the stand.

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Several people have questioned why the U.S. injuries were not reported at the time of the attack.  The answer is simple, Joe Biden was sleeping on the beach at the time of the events. It wouldn’t look good, so the injuries were withheld until today.

(VIA NBC) -Two dozen American military personnel were wounded last week in a series of drone attacks at American bases in Iraq and Syria, U.S. Central Command told NBC News on Tuesday.

The Pentagon confirmed the attacks last week, but the number of U.S. casualties has not been previously disclosed.

Twenty American personnel sustained minor injuries on Oct. 18 when at least two one-way attack drones targeted al-Tanf military base in southern Syria, CENTCOM said.

One of the drones was shot down. All of the wounded personnel were returned to duty, CENTCOM said, and there was no damage to any military installations.

On that same day, another four American personnel suffered minor injuries during two separate drone attacks against U.S. and coalition forces stationed at al-Asad base in western Iraq, CENTCOM said. (read more)

Two dozen U.S. military injured, Biden does nothing.

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