Chairman Lindsey Graham appears on late-night-interuptus to discuss his Senate Judiciary investigation into allegations of FISA abuse, etc.

(more…)

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released some important data today surrounding the state of the U.S. economy. The first release shows the current CPI (consumer price index) or rate of inflation:

(BLS Release) […] The all items index increased 1.5 percent for the 12 months ending February, a smaller increase than the 1.6-percent rise for the 12-months ending January. The index for all items less food and energy rose 2.1 percent over the last 12 months, a slightly smaller figure than the 2.2-percent increase for the period ending January. The food index rose 2.0 percent over the past year, its largest 12-month increase since the period ending April 2015. In contrast, the energy index declined 5.0 percent over the last 12 months. (read more)

As noted above, energy prices are 5.0% lower year-over-year; this is a significant reason for the current low inflationary rate.  Also energy prices (fuel, gas, oil) disproportionately impact the middle-class as an unavoidable cost.  Lower gas prices (currently down 9.1%) help middle-America, and also have a downstream impact of lowering product transportation costs.
An overall annual rate of inflation at 1.5 percent is exactly on target.  CTH has been predicting this energy-based outcome for more than three years:
(more…)

Against the backdrop of Speaker Pelosi tamping down expectations of a House impeachment, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders appears on Fox News to discuss the current state of DC politics.

.
Speaker Pelosi, Chairman Schiff, Chairman Cummings and Chairman Nadler would not likely drop their deep investments in an impeachment narrative unless they held confidence something more valuable was on the horizon.
(more…)

The U.S. Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (AGAC) was created in 1973 and reports to the Attorney General through the Deputy Attorney General. The AGAC represents the U.S. Attorneys and provides advice and counsel to the Attorney General on matters of policy, procedure, and management impacting the Offices of the U.S. Attorneys.
The purpose of the AGAC is to ensure consistent interpretation and application of the Attorney General’s priority throughout the broad U.S. justice system. [28 CFR § 0.10]
As much as possible pay attention to the dates and names (highlighted) as they each play an important role in understanding what has taken place in the past two years.

• On February 8th, 2017, the Senate confirmed Alabama Republican Senator Jeff Sessions as U.S. Attorney General.
• On November 13th, 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions appointed the first nine U.S. Attorney’s to serve on his Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (AGAC).
• NOTE:  Why AG Sessions waited nine months to appoint his Advisory Committee members is unknown.

Those November 2017 appointments included: U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama Richard Moore; U.S. Attorney for the District of Utah John W. Huber; U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jessie K. Liu; U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio Justin E. Herdman; U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina Robert Higdon; U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Oklahoma Trent Shores; U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana Joshua Minkler; U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri Jeff Jensen; and Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Alaska Bryan Schroder.

AG Jeff Sessions appointed Richard Moore (Alabama) as Chairman of the AGAC, and John W Huber (Utah) as Vice-Chairman.

“I am pleased to announce the first members of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee under this administration. These U.S. Attorneys will play an important role in carrying out the Department of Justice’s mission to reduce violent crime, combat transnational criminal organizations, secure our southern border, end the devastating opioid crisis, and return to the rule of law,” said Attorney General Sessions

Four months later, on March 12th, 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the appointment of six additional U.S. Attorneys to serve two-year terms on the AGAC, joining the nine members previously selected on November 13, 2017.
(more…)

The Commerce Department has released a much anticipated January Retail Sales Report which shows total cumulative spending growth of .02% over prior month, and 2.3% growth year-over-year.  Importantly, a sector review (year over year), comparing January ’19 with Jan ’18, highlights where we are against our anticipated state of the economy:

(source – pdf)

Gas prices are low which are reflected in lower overall sales data (-4.2% year-on-year) within the gasoline station sector.  Additionally, electronic and appliance store sales (-3.3%) reflects American consumers holding on to currently owned durable goods in that sector and not replacing. Both of these sectors were defined within the larger MAGAnomic forecast.
On the strong upside, building materials and home improvement reflect large growth of +8.7% year-over-year and +3.3% over prior month.  Again, when considering how the principles of MAGAnomic policy focuses on ‘blue-collar’ economic improvement, these outcomes are exactly what you would expect to see.
How do these results reflect amid your family and social circle; do you see the same?
(more…)

The primary ‘spygate” architect appears on CBS with Margaret Brennan to share his reaction to the sentence of Paul Manafort for tax fraud. Andrew McCabe said he was ‘shocked’, ‘s.h.o.c.k.e.d‘, that Manafort was not given a life sentence.

.
[Transcript] MARGARET BRENNAN: We’re back with former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe. He is the author of a new book, The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump. Good to have you here.
ANDREW MCCABE (Former Acting FBI Director/The Threat): Thanks so much for having me.
(more…)

On Thursday of last week Judicial Watch received a 300+ page release of Bruce and Nellie Ohr communication with government officials as the result of their 2017 FOIA submission. The following day, Friday, representative Doug Collins released the transcript of Bruce Ohr testifying about his activity and contacts with DOJ and FBI officials.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton appears with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the revelations within both the testimony and FOIA release, saying Bruce Ohr’s testimony confirms how closely the Department of Justice and FBI were working with Clinton operative, Christopher Steele.

(more…)

National Security Adviser John Bolton appears with Maria Bartiromo to discuss recent reports that Kim Jong-un is moving toward more nuclear testing.
Obviously that discussion moves quickly into the influence of China and Chairman Xi Jinping.
The frustrating question no-one ever seems to ask is not “if” China controls the DPRK government, but rather “to what extent”?
It has become more obvious in the past few years that North Korea’s Chairman Kim Jong-un has much less control over officials and military leadership within his own government than previously thought.
Does Chairman Xi and Beijing structurally control everything around Kim? Is Kim a hostage; forced to ride a dragon he doesn’t control?  I think the answer is yes.

.
Once people start to realize that China controls North Korea as a proxy province, then the discussion can evolve toward the true nature of the challenge, and the way President Trump is precariously negotiating a hostage release while refusing to pay the ransom.
(more…)

NBC News penned an article about the unorthodox release of DOJ official Bruce Ohr’s transcript.  Within the article NBC notes current DOJ officials responded to the congressional request for release by sending them an approved “redacted version”:

(NBC) […]  The transcripts of interviews with Ohr and other witnesses before the joint committee investigation were sent to the Justice Department last December to be vetted for public release at the request of the outgoing GOP chairmen, Bob Goodlatte from the Judiciary Committee and Trey Gowdy from the Oversight Committee.

The Justice Department returned the Ohr transcript to the committee this week with redactions. But Collins said he was releasing a copy without those edits because the changes sought by the department did not relate to classified information or sensitive personal data. By releasing the transcript on the House floor, Collins would be protected under what is known as the Speech and Debate Clause from any reprimand. (read more)

Having read the Ohr transcript (also provided below), there didn’t appear to be any national security interests, sources or methods, beyond investigative embarrassment for DOJ and FBI, simply because of the sham of it all.
What parts did the current DOJ redact, and what would have been their justification? What did the current DOJ attempt to hide? …Maybe Representative Doug Collins could provide the redacted version, so we can find out.  Curiouser, and curiouser…
(more…)

We discovered last year that Jeff Sessions had authorized U.S. Attorney John Huber to work with the Inspector General’s office, but we did not know exact dates and scope of the original Huber investigation.  Thanks to a FOIA request, some details now fill in.
A left-leaning watchdog group, American Oversight, filed a FOIA request in 2017 looking for any communication that might show former AG Jeff Sessions giving instructions to DOJ officials to target Hillary Clinton for investigations.
Ironically, and perhaps serendipitously, the American Oversight FOIA request was submitted on November 22nd, 2017, the exact date Sessions’ chief-of-staff Matt Whitaker was sending a letter to Utah U.S. Attorney John Huber.  Had they waited a day, what AO  were looking for would have surfaced. However, with the Sessions-Huber communication falling outside the FOIA request window, the DOJ response was delayed until yesterday.
The Sessions letter was an attachment to a email sent by Whitaker to Huber at 5:21pm on November 22nd, 2017.  The AG letter to Huber requests Huber to review issues raised by the House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, and return with advice. Here’s the letter:

CONTEXT – in 2017 House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte was conducting oversight and receiving testimony from witnesses concerning a possibility the DOJ and FBI had intentionally manipulated their investigations to protect Hillary Clinton.  Goodlatte wrote to AG Sessions about his concerns.
At the request of AG Jeff Sessions, Asst. AG Stephen Boyd sent a responsive letter back to belay Goodlatte’s concerns explaining what ongoing review processes were in place:
(more…)