Against the backdrop of all things DC swamp, this move was entirely predictable.  No-one takes over as chair of the SSCI without senate leadership having (blackmail) material on the appointee to have full control over their activity.  Marco Rubio is fully compromised.

Today Mitch McConnell announces that Senator Marco Rubio will replace Richard Burr as chairman of the notoriously corrupt Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI):

MITCH McCONNELL – “I am glad to announce that Senator Marco Rubio has accepted my invitation to serve as Acting Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

“The senior senator for Florida is a talented and experienced Senate leader with expertise in foreign affairs and national security matters. Senator Rubio was the natural choice for this temporary assignment on the basis of accumulated committee service. His proven leadership on pertinent issues only made the decision easier.

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In April something was bugging me… a familiarity amid the COVID lock-down status & another time… I couldn’t quite put my finger on it until a dear friend reminded me.

Many U.S. states are acting like the early 1980s and the imposition of Martial law in Poland to target the Solidarity movement.  Subsequently I wrote about it on a Twitter thread, because the parallels were really quite remarkable.

Both Poland circa 1980 and the U.S. friction in 2020, center around fragile economic issues. Both were an outcome of state control; and the key connection is government targeting control over the workers.

In both examples the state took exclusive control of the economic and social state of the citizens, and the courts provided no option for redress. In both examples the state locked down the citizens and would not permit them to interact with each other.

In 1981 the government in Poland initiated Martial Law and citizens were forced to communicate underground. In 2020 a considerable number of U.S. state governments locked-down citizens in similar fashion and banned citizen assembly.

In 1981 in Poland the communist regime used economic psychological pressure, selecting workers permitted to earn wages. Those workers identified as “essential” to the state. In 2020 many State governors selected workers to earn an income by designating them “essential” to the state.

In 1981 in Poland; communication amid the Solidarity Movement was forced underground. In 2020 many oppressive State governors demanded social media remove public content adverse to the interests of the Stay-at-Home confinement orders. Big Tech complied with the authoritarian dictate.

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Earlier today President Trump was again ‘subtle as a brick through a window’ in a tweet requesting the senate get serious in exposing Obamagate and the soft coup effort:

Unfortunately, due to the dynamics of the UniParty, Mitch McConnell is very unlikely to take any action to expose prior misconduct; it would be against McConnell’s interests.

The Senate was not a passive entity in the various hoaxes against President Trump.  Factually, the Senate Intelligence Committee, and individual senators themselves, were active participants.  As a result just like AG Barr knows any discussion of SSCI security director James Wolfe’s non prosecution would expose DOJ corruption, so too does Mitch McConnell know senate investigations would expose senate corruption in both parties.

Republican members like John McCain actively participated; and republican members like Richard Burr willfully allowed the framework to continue.  Don’t forget it was Republican Senator Marco Rubio who first came to the defense of Democrat SSCI Vice-Chair Mark Warner when the covert communication with Chris Steele became evident.

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Unsurprisingly when Trey Gowdy said “the Trump family was unmasked on inauguration day”… interviewer Sandra Smith never paused to say: “wait, unmasked in what”?

During his tenure as House Oversight Committee Chair, apparently Trey Gowdy has seen intelligence reports showing the Trump family was unmasked on inauguration day. The logical follow-up question would be: who was generating intelligence reports on the Trump family?

Alas, the dangling participle never had the opportunity to dangle… go figure.

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Follow the bouncing ball. If Gowdy is correct, and he has no vested interest in just making it up, then there was FBI domestic surveillance of the Trump family on inauguration day; which generated an intelligence report. Yet, apparently, no-one seems surprised by that… I digress.

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Senator Richard Burr has suspended his role as chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) while he participates in a federal investigation into insider trading with his stock portfolio.

Last night a search warrant was delivered to Senator Burr’s lawyers and federal investigators scheduled a convenient time to pick up Mr. Burr’s cellular telephone from his Washington DC residence. It appears the cell phone is part of the ongoing review of Senator Burr’s stock trades.

With the investigation progressing, Mr. Burr said Thursday that he wanted to limit distraction to the Senate and informed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that he would temporarily step aside as chairman of the SSCI while the review was ongoing. Senator Burr will remain a member of the committee and an interim chair will be selected.

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President Trump sits down for a lengthy hour-long interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo.  The President discusses coronavirus, the economy, China, trade, Flynn, the election, and much more.  55 minute interview taped yesterday, aired today.

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It likely takes a lot of main justice approvals to serve a search warrant for the device of the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI).  The Chairman of the powerful committee also sits on the congressional oversight team known as the gang-of-eight.

According to the Los Angeles Times the FBI served a search warrant on North Carolina Republican Senator Richard Burr Wednesday. The warrant appears connected to an ongoing investigation on whether or not Burr violated a law that prevents members of Congress from trading insider information they learn from their work.  According to the report federal agents seized Burr’s cell phone after they served the warrant at his residence in the Washington DC area.

The sketchy guardian of swamp secrets is retiring at the end of his term so he’s probably just willing to wait out the investigation and negotiate with the DC justice-tier to pay a fine and move on.  DC has a totally different set of laws and outcomes than everywhere else.  Any fine, and any resulting legal expenses, will likely be paid by a lobbying firm or political interest group who previously contracted with, and received benefit from, Senator Burr.

It’s the way of the swamp.

A few points on the unmasking before Rand Paul response.  First, the release today is only what the Obama team did regarding unmasking General Flynn.  As Devin Nunes previously outlined, there are many more Trump transition team members who were unmasked as the Obama team conducted surveillance on the incoming administration.

Second, the NSA “reports” are related to actual transcripts, emails and text messages of communication; not just various intelligence interpretations of those communications.

As Senator Rand Paul shares, the effort of the Obama and Biden administration to unmask their political opposition during the transition; and then use widespread distribution and leaks to the media to push a specific one-sided view; is the weaponization of the intelligence apparatus to target political opposition.  That’s the major issue:

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Again, a reminder, these reports surround only NSA intercepts. Simultaneous to this there was an ongoing FBI counterintelligence operation using FISA surveillance (Carter Page) and non-fisa targeted FBI surveillance of Michael Flynn.

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Senator Grassley sends a letter (pdf here) thanking AG Bill Barr and DNI Richard Grenell for the declassified documents produced so far.  With the DOJ deciding to drop the Flynn prosecution Grassley notes there are three more buckets of classified documents he would like to see declassified and presented soon:

(1) The Flynn/Kislyak transcript. (2) The Susan Rice Memo to file. (3) The original and mysteriously missing Flynn 302 authored by FBI agent Joe Pientka. [Grassley Press]

Within the letter Senator Grassley notes he previously requested the release of these documents from former DAG Rod Rosenstein; who refused to submit them and made excuses to congressional oversight.

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This is nuts.  According to the Los Angeles Times city officials plan to keep the stay-at-home order in place for an additional three months.  However, this decision does provide further evidence the deep blue regions plan on maximizing economic damage.

The odd dynamic is…. without a massive local bailout, and funding for the citizens who are on lockdown, how could they possibly even attempt to pull this off?  Is this LA plan of action dependent on Pelosi’s brand new scheme for a $3 trillion spending package?

CALIFORNIA – Los Angeles County’s stay-at-home orders will “with all certainty” be extended for the next three months, county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer acknowledged during a Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday.

Ferrer, though she didn’t issue an official order, said that timeline would only change if there was a “dramatic change to the virus and tools at hand.”

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