Checks and Balances…

One of the least understood aspects of congressional oversight is the elite group of elected politicians who are charged with congressional oversight over all intelligence activity. This highly important oversight group is called the Intelligence “Gang of Eight”.
The Gang of Eight are briefed on every covert operation that our various intelligence agencies carry out. They are directly responsible for oversight of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).
The Go8 are responsible for overseeing all executive office policy as it relates to intelligence gathering and corresponding activity.  In short these eight elected representatives are in charge of all oversight of all U.S. intelligence operations, open and covert.  The incoming 2017 Gang of Eight is:

A position within the Gang of Eight comes as a result of holding one of the following eight positions: 1. The Speaker of the House, 2. The Minority Leader of the House, 3. the Majority Leader of the Senate, 4. the Minority Leader of the Senate, 5. the Chairperson of the House Permanent Committee on Intelligence, 6. the minority leader from the same committee; 7. The Chairperson of the Senate Intelligence Committee and 8. the minority leader of the same committee.
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The death toll in the Reina nightclub massacre remains at 39 with an additional 69 people wounded or injured. One of the injured is now reported to be a U.S. national, but no Americans were killed. There is a manhunt underway for the primary gunman, however the Turkish authorities are seeking three suspects.
New CCTV video of the gunman entering the nightclub and shooting what appears to be a Kalashnikov rifle, or AK variant, has surfaced. Warning: the content is disturbing as it shows people at the entrance to the club being shot.

(Via ABC) A manhunt is underway in Turkey after a gunman went on a rampage in a crowded Istanbul nightclub during New Year’s Eve celebrations early Sunday morning, killed at least 39 people and injured at least 69 more, according to Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu.
The popular Reina club had attracted a diverse crowd of between 400 and 500 patrons from foreign countries as well as Turkey to ring in the new year before the attack by an apparently lone shooter at around 1:15 a.m, authorities said.
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WARNING: Reporting is somewhat sketchy.  However, early reports indicates one or two men adorned in Christmas or Santa outfits, and armed with rifles, entered a nightclub in Istanbul Turkey and opened fire on the crowd.  According to current reporting there were as many as 500-800 people in the club when the shooting began.
UPDATE 1100pm EST: At least 35 people have been confirmed killed, with approximately 40 more wounded.  UPDATE 1:00am EST Unfortunately the death toll has now climbed to 39 people killed and 69 people wounded.  There are many foreign nationals missing.  The gunman/gunmen are still at large.
CNN REPORT: Istanbul (CNN) – At least 39 people were killed and at least 69 wounded in an attack in a nightclub early Sunday as they were celebrating the new year, Turkey’s Interior Minister said.
“We are face to face with a terror attack,” Interior minister Suleyman Soylu told reporters. Twenty-one of the dead have been identified, he said. Of those, 16 were foreign nationals and five were Turkish”.
US officials also called it a terrorist attack, making it the first of 2017. Soylu also said that “the efforts to locate the terrorist are ongoing. Security forces have begun the necessary operations. God willing soon (the attacker) will be apprehended.” (read more)
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President-elect Donald Trump’s top strategist sat for a rare radio interview Friday morning, urging conservative voters to ‘hold people accountable’ in the White House – including himself – as the new administration gets off the ground. (Audio Below)

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Steve Bannon, Trump’s senior counselor said afterward that he specifically wants Trump’s base to hold his feet to the fire as he steers the president’s strategic ship through waters infested with Democrats and moderate Republicans alike.  “Deplorables and Hobbits should stay engaged and hold ALL of us accountable – including me”… (more)

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Oh boy, this is challenging.  We do not want the Democrat Party to change their mind, and we definitely want to see Keith Ellison advanced to become Chairman of the DNC, this epic expository by Alan Dershowitz explains why.
Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz was really animated earlier when he said he’ll leave the Democratic Party if Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) is appointed the next chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

[02:10] “If they now appoint Keith Ellison, who worked with [Nation of Islam leader Louis] Farrakhan, to be chairman of the DNC, you’re going to see a lot of people leave.”

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Build that darn wall Donald, BUILD THAT WALL:

[…] And when Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.  ~ Donald Trump June 17th 2015

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Mexican man accused of raping a 13-year-old girl on a Greyhound bus that traveled through Kansas had been deported 10 times and voluntarily removed from the U.S. another nine times since 2003, records obtained by The Associated Press show.
[…]  Court filings show Martinez-Maldonado has two misdemeanor convictions for entering without legal permission in cases prosecuted in 2013 and 2015 in U.S. District Court of Arizona, where he was sentenced to serve 60 days and 165 days respectively.
A status hearing in the rape case is scheduled for Jan. 10. Defense attorney Lisa Hamer declined to comment on the charge, but said, “criminal law and immigration definitely intersect and nowadays it should be the responsibility of every criminal defense attorney to know the possible ramifications in the immigration courts.” (more…)

Everywhere you look the end of each year brings forth a series of lists outlining some variant of an annual summation.   We don’t traditionally assemble anything like that – however, this year my thoughts have been on specifically domestic stories that have not received the attention they deserve.
With that in mind, here’s my Top Ten list of domestic, mostly political, stories that I view have not been discussed with the importance or emphasis they should have carried:
#10 – Jeb’s failure to launch.  When you think about the years of strategic planning that went into a Jeb Bush presidential campaign, well, the scope Jeb’s failure to launch just exemplifies how disconnected the professional republican apparatus was from the average voter.  The party apparatchik genuinely believed Jeb Bush had a chance at winning the nomination.  Hundreds of millions of corporate and individual dollars, from major GOP donors, contributed to a campaign that was intensely futile, but the people supporting Jeb seemed oblivious to the reality.  Almost every incumbent republican politician aligned with his campaign.  Their collective disconnect from the feeling of the average American voter was definitely under reported.
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There are many facets being discussed by various political tribes about President Obama pitching a ‘vast Russian election hacking conspiracy’ narrative.   However, though he absolutely never intended to do so, President Obama has just given us one of the best gifts, transparent propaganda.
By claiming to provide evidence of “Russian hacking”, that substantively contains zero evidence of Russian hacking, the outgoing President has placed himself in the position of proving -for us- something we are continually trying to prove about him.
Many are missing the reality of an entire generation of techno-skilled younger people who will hear and see this Presidential ‘hacking claim’ and immediately go check it out.
What they will discover, much faster than the generation above them, is how ridiculous the Obama claim factually is.  The result can be eye-opening when they try to reconcile the abject nonsense, and find themselves perhaps reminded of how their parent’s generation have been warning them of the Obama propaganda.
Years of eye-rolling can quickly turn into ‘eyes-wide-open‘ amid the face of brutal absurdity.   OMG – Soylent Green is, in reality, people.
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There were numerous incidents throughout the U.S. today as police responded to fights, shooting, looting, bloodshed and general mayhem in multiple States.

The mall issues and/or violence was reported in: Manchester Connecticut, Beachwood Ohio, Monroeville Pennsylvania, Aurora Colorado, Fayetteville North Carolina, Elizabeth New Jersey and Aurora Illinois…
Various terms like “youth“, “kids“, “teens” and/or “students” appear amid the general media reports which accompany each story.  However, beyond the words there appears to be something the PC media are trying to avoid.  Something transparently obvious to those who are looking at each story.
Something’s missing.  Perhaps they all have something in common.
Let’s see:
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One third of all recently elected Democrats hail from only three states: New York, Massachusetts and California.  The entire party apparatus is increasingly ancient, archaic and collapsing unto itself because it now focuses entirely on social issues.
Speaking of archaic – The Democrat House leader for the past 14 years is 76-year-old Nancy Pelosi.  House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer is 77, and Assistant Minority Leader Jim Clyburn of South Carolina is 76.
Representative Maxine Waters, also from California, is in her twenty-fifth year in the House (elected ’91).  She is also 78 years old.  Watch:

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