At 10:00am EDT today U.S. Attorney General William Barr will deliver testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee following the publication of the special counsel report on the 2016 election. There will be a separate discussion thread at 9:00am EDT which will include multiple options to the view the testimony live.
In the interim, the opening statement from the Attorney General has been released: (link to download statement here – pdf link here and embed below)
[scribd id=408259022 key=key-Zk9MDAegG1Sytnt4oC2k mode=scroll] (more…)
This is something many anticipated in 2017; particularly with the Mid-East visit by President Trump; but it never happened. However, according to the New York Times, President Trump has a renewed push toward designating The Muslim Brotherhood as an official terrorist group. The Brotherhood is the political umbrella organization for a variety of extreme Islamist organizations; and was the primary driver of regional uprising during the Islamist Spring (Tunis, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen etc). Former President Obama looked warmly upon the Brotherhood and worked earnestly with them to fulfill their ideological goals.
The most visible effort of the political Brotherhood was in Egypt with the election of Mohammed Morsi; which led to widespread violence/chaos and the eventual call by the Egyptian people for General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to step-in.
The Brotherhood leadership was exiled from Egypt, and after a short time in Qatar -and confrontation by the Gulf Cooperation Council- they were given safe harbor in Turkey by Recep Erdogan. They likely remain in Turkey today. (more…)
Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing discuss the latest ebbs and flows amid the fraudulent Weissmann/Rosenstein report, the testimony of AG Bill Barr, and the potential to expose the weaponization of the intelligence apparatus for political surveillance and spying.
The entire leftist political apparatus is not going to give on their strategy. They have been planning this exploitation since November of 2018. This is what they do; this is all they do.
In a strategic set of rolled-out narratives today democrats, together with their leak sources inside the Mueller/Rosenstein group; and in close coordination with their media allies and Lawfare community; timed a series of events to target AG Bill Barr ahead of his senate testimony tomorrow. The timing of all this stuff is transparent.
It began with a letter from Senator Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), to the inspector general demanding an immediate investigation of AG Barr for not agreeing to the carefully constructed narrative by Weissman, Mueller and Rosenstein. [Details Here] A group of 12 democrats demand the DOJ-OIG start investigating Attorney General Barr.
Hours later, the Washington Post and New York Times, simultaneously release dual timed articles, outlining their reception of a March 27th letter; leaked from inside the Weissmann/Mueller/Rosenstein operation; showing special counsel group were unhappy with Barr’s four-page summary of the Weissmann/Mueller report because it diluted the intended efforts of Weissmann, Mueller and Rosenstein.
(WaPo) […] “The summary letter the Department sent to Congress and released to the public late in the afternoon of March 24 did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this office’s work and conclusions,” Mueller wrote. “There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations.”
China, Russia and Cuba are financing and supporting the socialist regime of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Russian and Chinese military equipment was previously shipped into the country and military members from Cuba are fighting on the ground.
In response to the violence and presence of the Cuban military, President Trump is now threatening a full and complete embargo of Cuba by the U.S.
Well, it looks like the outcome of a horsetrading deal is starting to assemble. President Trump meeting with Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer et al, to discuss a $2 trillion infrastructure deal. Despite their schemes and plots this is worth watching:
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Democrats don’t want the baggage of a tax increase heading into 2020… so Schumer punts the financing of the $2 trillion to President Trump; forcing the White House to deal with the dirty part (likelihood a gas tax increase), while Schumer/Pelosi keep clean hands on the high-brow aspect of beautiful infrastructure. That part is politically predictable.
That said, CTH can see the outline a deal where Democrats exchange votes for President Trump’s trade deals (specifically USMCA); to offset the Wall Street Republicans that will vote against the trade agreements; in return for provisions of an infrastructure deal that will benefit Pelosi/Schumer. (more…)
Rule #1, the Club activity is predictable; they follow a well worn guide. Rule #2, when it appears they are changing strategies, refer back to Rule #1.
The Joe Biden/Stacey Abrams club ticket was visible months ago; discussed in March. Standing between the club’s pre-planned designs and the visibility therein is a great deal of smoke and mirrors. Everything is done purposefully. Planning and strategy is all they do.
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The media; and more importantly the manipulated polling to feed the media narrative; have been pushing the Biden ticket hard. Very hard. The club spends major cash; this is where the mega-donors and the Corinthian wing-back chairs of the professional consultants, political brokers, come in. Political polling is a business. (more…)
National Security Adviser John Bolton holds a press availability to discuss the crisis in Venezuela following a briefing with President Trump. Mr. Bolton said “we are seeing the Venezuelan people strive to get a government that they control, not an authoritarian military regime”, adding “this is a very serious situation. The president has been monitoring it minute-by-minute throughout the day.”
Bolton emphasized “this is clearly not a coup. We recognize Juan Guaido as the legitimate president of Venezuela.” He called it a “potentially dispositive moment” for Venezuelans to regain their freedom”, later referencing “a very delicate moment.” If this effort fails, they will sink into a dictatorship from which there are very few possible alternatives.”
U.S. Secretary of State calls it “Operation Liberty” and supports opposition leader Juan Guaido. The Venezuela regime of Nicolas Maduro calls it a “coup attempt” and has help from Russia and Cuba to put down the uprising. The regular Venezuelan military, and the ordinary people of the country appear to be caught in the middle.
Perhaps this is the last effort of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido to shift the balance of power. The White House is supportive but cautious. Everything is tenuous as Venezuela appears to be on the brink of extreme political violence.
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido on Tuesday made his strongest call yet to the military to help him oust President Nicolas Maduro, and violence broke out at anti-government protests as the country hit a new crisis point after years of political and economic chaos.
Former Deputy National Security Advisor to President Obama, Ben Rhodes, says any investigation of prior administration “will find nothing” that shows former President Obama or White House staff had any “involvement” in the origins of the surveillance of Trump campaign and Russia collusion investigation.
Prior to March 9th, 2016, the Obama-era political surveillance and spy operations consisted of using the FBI and NSA database to track/monitor their opposition. However, once the NSA compliance officer began initiating an internal review of who was accessing the system, the CIA and FBI moved to create ex post facto justification for their endeavors. [Full Backstory] Everything after March 9, 2016, became a cover-story.
Looking at White House engagement in the last half of 2016, The War Economy has done some excellent research on this period to contrast the reference of Ben Rhodes:
[Via TWE] […] On July 31, 2016, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, ran by Director James Comey, opened an investigation into the Trump campaign titled “Crossfire Hurricane”, named after the Rolling Stones documentary of the same name. It focused on the actions of four members of the Trump campaign:
