~ Compare and Contrast ~

To adequately absorb the scale being outlined here: it must be remembered in July 2014 President Obama and DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson declared a “border crisis” and requested $3.7 billion in budget appropriations for a total of 60,000 illegal border crossings during the migrant travel season.  That’s 60,000 TOTAL in 2014.

According to NPR, citing current DHS Border Patrol stats, in the period of October 2018 through last week there have been more than 260,000 border apprehensions.

(Via NPR) The U.S. Border Patrol apprehended more than 66,000 migrants at the Southern border in February, the highest total for a single month in almost a decade.
The majority of those arrested were migrant families or children traveling alone or without a parent, according to figures released Tuesday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Many of the migrants say they’re fleeing criminal gangs and poverty in Central America to seek asylum in the United States.

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HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff and Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler are hiring members of the anti-Trump “legal resistance movement”, ie Lawfare, to fill their key investigative staff roles.
Chairman Schiff announced his hiring of former SDNY U.S. Attorney Daniel Goldman today [See Here].  The associated network surrounding Goldman is filled with familiar names and ideological alignment.  The Schiff hiring of Goldman follows on the heels of Chairman Nadler hiring Obama Administration lawyer Norm Eisen and criminal defense attorney Barry Berke [See Here].

A brutally obvious aspect to this is how all of these Trump-hating characters have interests, multiple tiered conflicts, and are vested in the outcome of the congressional investigation of President Trump.  Heck, many of the players being absorbed by the congressional team staff are direct or indirect stakeholders in the investigative outcome.  Thus we see a typical Lawfare control pattern.
The appointment of Robert Mueller was primarily a shield against discovery of Obama White House, DOJ and FBI misconduct of historic proportions.  Mueller’s team was/is comprised of many active participants in the weaponization of government. The Mueller probe was/is a tool to defend themselves from exposure.
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House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler has produced his committee witness list to initiate the predictable groundwork for his ‘impeachment’ process.  Pelosi’s trio of organized co-horts Schiff, Cummings and Nadler each have a role in the process.
Chairman Nadler provides some specifics within his planned approach, announcing three investigative prongs: ¹Obstruction of Justice; ²Public Corruption and ³Abuses of power.

It seems Nadler will tackle the “obstruction” aspect; Cummings will specialize on the “public corruption” angle and Schiff will likely tackle the “abuse of power” approach.

Washington, D.C. – Today, House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) unveiled an investigation by the House Judiciary Committee into the alleged obstruction of justice, public corruption, and other abuses of power by President Trump, his associates, and members of his Administration.  As a first step, the Committee has served document requests to 81 agencies, entities, and individuals believed to have information relevant to the investigation.

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Interesting to note.  Though it’s not really a surprise, many thought former AAG Matt Whitaker would be retained within the DOJ in some anti-corruption capacity/effort; that is not the case. It would appear AG William Barr did not make an effort to retain him.

WASHINGTON DC – Former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker has left the Justice Department. Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec says Whitaker’s last day was Saturday.
Whitaker was replaced last month when William Barr was confirmed as attorney general. He became a counselor in the associate attorney general’s office. (more)

HPSCI Ranking Member Devin Nunes appears on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo for a lengthy twenty minute interview on multiple subjects.  The first half of the interview surrounds Michael Cohen’s testimony and morphs into the Steele Dossier.
The second half discusses AG William Barr, possible accountability measures and ongoing issues with the FISA process.  The final segment touches on Chinese cyber-threats and issues.

While a letter from congress to the DOJ amounts to further process frustration for those who bear witness to the corruption that took place; there is a valuable dynamic at play  which may help answer whether AG William Barr is factually going to address corruption, or whether he is apt to just cover it up.
Representatives Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows send a letter (full pdf below) to AG William Barr questioning the independence of two members of the Mueller team, Zainab Ahmad and Andrew Weissmann.
Both Weissmann and Ahmad were involved in contacts and discussions with DOJ official Bruce Ohr as he transferred the Clinton/Steele dossier from his wife, Nellie Ohr, and from Fusion GPS into the FBI to advance a political investigation targeting Donald Trump.
[scribd id=400969471 key=key-UJ9cl2LPrcT3C6NjowpH mode=scroll]
Over time evidence has surfaced showing how a small group of approximately eighteen officials within the DOJ and FBI worked in concert with media and political operatives to target Trump for the benefit of candidate Hillary Clinton.
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Congressman Jim Jordan appears on NBC Meet The Press with Chuck Todd to debate the congressional testimony of Michael Cohen.
When it comes to issues surrounding the Clinton/Steele dossier it is quite remarkable to see how far Chuck Todd is willing to take his Mamet act: ie. pretending not to know things, because those things are counter to his necessary Trump-Russia narrative.
Jim Jordan keeps throwing facts at Todd, and Todd keeps ducking and jiving to avoid the sunlight.

The Canadian government shocked the professional financial and economic media with their latest fourth quarter GDP release showing the economy has essentially come to a grinding halt at 0.1% growth.  [Compare to U.S. GDP growth of 3%]
The Canadian Q4 GDP growth isn’t one percent, it’s one-tenth of one percent: 0.1%, essentially halted; but everyone discussing this is missing something very important.
First, The Financial Post headline:

[FP] Canada’s economy practically came to a halt in the final three months of 2018, in a much deeper-than-expected slowdown that brings the underlying strength of the expansion into doubt.
The country’s economy grew by just 0.1 per cent in the fourth quarter, for an annualized pace of 0.4 per cent, Statistics Canada said Friday from Ottawa. That’s the worst quarterly performance in two and a half years, down from annualized 2 per cent in the third quarter and well below economist expectations for a 1 per cent annualized increase.

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Well, we cannot say we have not seen this Decepticon maneuver before.  The open-border, pro-amnesty, globalist Koch Brothers have announced, yet again, they will take action in the 2020 primary races to remove any/all nationalist-minded blue-collar populist (MAGA) candidates…. in an effort, once again, to install their Wall Street globalist crew.

This is where the Koch Brothers join in common cause with Tom Donohue and Mitch McConnell. The Big Club is nothing if not entirely predictable:

OXON HILL, Md. — The Koch political network for the first time plans to intervene in GOP primaries as part of a deliberate 2020 strategy to reverse years of essentially rubber-stamping the Republican Party in general elections.

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On Wednesday House Democrats organized a voted for legislation to increase federal background checks for gun purchases.  House minority republicans offered a ‘motion to recommit‘ adding a minority amendment provision requiring Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be notified if an illegal alien attempted to purchase a firearm.
Twenty-six moderate House Democrats voted in favor of the common sense minority amendment and added it to the bill which passed the house.
In response to the ICE amendment success, Speaker Nancy Pelosi angrily announced she would invoke a nuclear option and change the House rules removing the ‘motion to recommit’ process that allows the voice of the minority to be heard.

Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was righteously angered by the threat of Speaker Pelosi to destroy a decades old institutional process that protects the voice and opinion of the minority. “Rather than reconcile the differences within their party that are driving this division, Democrats want to rig the rules and suppress the minority party’s speech on the House floor”, McCarthy said.
However, newly elected New York Democrat, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has another solution… Not accidentally similar to the ideology of the ultimate solution… Target the non-compliant representatives, provide violent activists a list of their names, and unleash the jackboots:
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