In November 2019 activist Federal District Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson ruled former White House counsel Don McGahn must appear before Congress; however, she also ruled McGahn retained the ability to “invoke executive privilege where appropriate” during his appearance. The central issue is separation of power.

The White House appealed the ruling to the DC appellate court on constitutional grounds, and on February 28, 2020, a three judge panel from the DC circuit agreed with the White House position.  The House of representatives could have appealed the decision; however, instead, the main lawfare activist, House counsel Doug Letter, took a different approach and sought to argue the case based around their right to enforce a subpoena.

Today a politically divided DC appeals court panel ruled the House can’t go to the judicial branch to enforce legislative subpoenas because there is no statute giving the legislative chamber the authority to force the executive branch to enforce an action against its own constitutional interests.

DC Via Politico – […] “The decision is likely to spark a renewed debate over the House’s power of “inherent contempt” — its long-dormant ability to fine or jail witnesses who refuse to comply with its oversight requests.

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ODNI John Ratcliffe made an interesting, frightening & stunningly open direct statement yesterday when he described intelligence evidence that China is putting on a full-court press against governors and local officials to retain their influence campaign in 2020.

Essentially what DNI Ratcliffe described boils down to Beijing threatening economic blackmail against U.S. officials who were comfortable being reliant on local Chinese investment and purchases of U.S. companies, assents and interests.

With that stark statement in mind; and keeping the full national security ramifications in the forefront; it is worth remembering a foreboding speech given by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in February.

This is specifically important now against the backdrop of how some U.S. politicians appear to be reacting to the COVID-19 challenges, perhaps even weaponizing the virus to achieve political objectives; and with a perspective toward the way media outlets, some businesses and many politicians appear to be influenced by China. The background context for this speech takes on an entirely new dimension.

Pompeo’s remarks were made to the National Governors Association (NGA) Feb 8, 2020; and there’s an interesting segment where Pompeo reveals his awareness of a list of U.S. governors compiled by China’s communist party; and their alignment with China’s interests. A transcript of the key excerpt from his speech is provided. WATCH:

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Wisconsin is one of the states in the union with regional pockets of extreme activists and a propensity toward political violence. One has to only reference the violent resistance units that initially confronted Governor Scott Walker to remember what lies below the surface.

That said, the looting, arson and lawlessness in Kenosha did not come as a surprise to those who have a historic reference point.  Additionally, the intransigence of Democrat Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, an archaic tool of the politically corrupt, and his unwillingness to restore law and order, is simply an outcome of his politics reflecting the preferred disposition of those who pull his strings.

After an increase in violence last night, which included shootings within the mayhem, the Governor has recognized an extreme downside in allowing lawlessness to continue.  After Evers called the White House President Trump is now sending in federal law enforcement:

Governor Evers has also, finally, authorized the Wisconsin national guard to the area where violence, arson and looting is occurring.  Unfortunately, this action is too late for those who have lost their lives and seen their businesses destroyed.   Notably, national democrats are silent on the consequences from their promotion of anarchy.

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Maximo Alvarez is a Cuban immigrant whose family fled totalitarianism from both Cuba and Spain. Tonight, Mr. Alvarez spoke directly about candidate Joe Biden and the Democrats’ dangerous slide towards socialism and the far left. Mr. Alvarez knows personally how President Trump is fighting to keep the American dream alive.

A powerful and emotional message directly from the heart….

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Socialism destroyed NASCAR, now the corporation is marketing racism for a new audience. Here is how and why from a simple observer perspective.

Auto racing is exciting.  Auto racing racing is also dangerous; and became very expensive. Years of NASCAR success put them into the spotlight of big business; then another thing happened… A decision was made to make the racing “more competitive” through a series of rules and regulations that essentially made every car different but equal.  NASCAR followed the socialist corporate model.

NASCAR intentionally tried -and succeeded- to slow the cars down.

‘It’s too dangerous‘ the corporation said.  So restrictor plates, and rules, and regulations, and more rules, and even more regulations, until every minute detail of the car was governed.  If all cars are equal, the emphasis will be on driver skill the corporation said.

Race teams focused on an increasingly diminishing set of variables that could make a difference.   Pit crews were one example of emphasis…. until after a few seasons all pit crews essentially became equal.   And so it went, and so it went…

Throughout the process of extra safety, speed-limiting regulation and corporate-driven equality, guess what else happened… yup, NASCAR races became vanilla.  All drivers were created equal by corporate decree; audience share started dropping along with speedway attendance.  The racetracks saw more and more empty seats because corporate socialism was sucking the vibrancy out of an exciting and competitive sport.

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Shaun King is a well known Black Lives Matter con artist who has grifted on racial grievance for a decade even lying about his own family and race.  Shaun King is white, provably white, and he found his professional & financial niche by conning black people, including Oprah Winfrey, into believing he is black.  [Shaun King]

After spending several years drumming up racial division King attached himself to the very first well publicized BLM effort in Ferguson Missouri. There was a lot of money to be made selling the completely false Mike Brown story; so Shaun King hooked up with DeRay McKesson to create the new financial conduit known as Black Lives Matter. His scams and cons are very well known to long-term CTH readers.

Together McKesson and King sell a toxic stew of Marxism, racism, and hatred; and as a consequence their business model intersects with Islamic extremism.  As we noted earlier there is a lot of similarity between 2010’s Islamist Spring and 2020’s BLM protests.  Here’s the latest example courtesy of the lying, liar who lies for a living:

Under the ideology of Black Lives Matter Islam is the dominant and preferred religion; Christianity is viewed as against their interests. The reason is simple, the doctrines of Islam are political, the doctrines of the BLM movement are identically political.

Within the overall U.S. movement Antifa is essentially white ISIS and the Black Lives Matter crowd are racial grievance activists funded by coastal liberals and Marxists.

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This is a little lengthy of a discussion, but it touches upon something very relevant to this election cycle.  Author Diana West discusses a network and pattern of ideology within the modern pentagon leadership, and how a worldview is threatened by President Trump. The interview and discussion is below.

The conversation necessarily gets in the weeds and is filled with unique insight into a very complex alignment. However, in the big picture it’s not difficult to figure out why the Pentagon would be opposed to Trump.  During the campaign and early administration President Trump’s expressed foreign policy was viewed by NATO alliance members as a threat.  The same type of perspective applies internally to the U.S. military.

President Trump’s preferred use of economic warfare makes the Pentagon’s role diminished. Instead of punching North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, President Trump hits the checkbook of Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping.  The primary has become the contingency. The value of James Mattis replaced by the effectiveness of Robert Lighthizer.  JC Milley isn’t in the planning room; Milley’s been replaced by Wilbur Ross (until he’s needed).

In the Trump era the President is telling the Pentagon where and when to position; and asks them for ‘contingency’ preparation.  Decades of Pentagon-centric foreign policy is lessened by an entirely new geopolitical approach based on economic strategy.

Take away power, or worse yet, stop using military power, and the leaders within the system start to sense their institution becoming functionally obsolescent.  Overlay this military view upon pre-existing ideological differences and the situation gets worse.

CTH touched on this last year when we noted how the Pentagon, specifically the joint chiefs, never took any action when Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman positioned himself as an opponent to President Trump’s policy perspective.  The pentagon left Vindman on assignment to the NSC even after Vindman attempted to take-down President Trump.

Another example was Joint Chief Chairman Milley, and the visit Pompeo and Milley took to Mar-a-Lago in December, where they were informing President Trump of military strikes in Syria and Iraq *after* they took place. [Background Here] [Background Here].

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What a difference 24 hours can make. – A report from KOMO News tonight, highlights Seattle officials planning to take back the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, or nation of CHAZ, from the occupying anarchists and Antifa elements.

However, it’s more than a little funny to see Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan saying her administration is determining “when it would be safe for the Seattle Police to move in there” considering she was just claiming last night on CNN the occupation was merely a small group of festive citizens having “a block party”.

According to the report police Chief Carmen Best and her top commanders surveyed the inside of the East Precinct building, she and Mayor Jenny Durkan discussed how and when the department could reassert control of the building but they didn’t give a timeline.

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Put this in the ‘things that make other things make sense‘ file….

Some smart sleuthing by Raheem Kassam and Natalie Winters at The National Pulse shows the donations made to Black Lives Matter actually go to ActBlue.  From there ActBlue takes those contributions and sends them forward to the Joe Biden Campaign.

While the Biden campaign insists it doesn’t support efforts to defund the police, it may happily profit from Black Lives Matter (BLM) efforts, and is complicit in taking money from an organization partnered with those spearheading the dangerous policy that has already taken root in Minneapolis, New York, and Los Angeles.

After reaching the BLM homepage, which features a “Defund The Police” petition front and center, if a user chooses to donate, they’re rerouted to a site hosted by ActBlue and prompted with the message: “We appreciate your support of the movement and our ongoing fight to end state-sanctioned violence, liberate Black people, and end white supremacy forever.”

Joe Biden is the top beneficiary of the ActBlue’s fundraising efforts.  (link)

This means donations to Black Lives Matter are actually the primary funding mechanism for Joe Biden 2020; and that explains why national democrats (Pelosi) and the DNC have changed their position on BLM as an activist organization, and now embrace them openly.

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It is really quite stunning how the U.S. media have avoided reporting on a group of activists in Seattle who have taken over part of the city surrounding the abandoned East precinct police station.  No-one is being allowed inside what they are calling a “Free Capitol Hill Zone” or “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ).

The activists have barricaded the streets and will not let any journalists or city officials inside their declared zone of control.  The region expands across six blocks as outlined by the occupying groups.  Information on the encampment AVAILABLE HERE:

According to the area activists the East precint of the police station is called the “captured regime” (above blue). Journalist Julio Rosas tweeted photos from the ‘Zone,’ including flyers demanding that Seattle PD be defunded, and declaring that police “will always be racist because capitalism requires inequality.”

Independent journalist Andy Ngo has a great deal of familiarity with the groups assembled in the occupying effort.  He describes the group in control of the area as “Antifa,” and cited tweets to suggest there were armed guards guarding entry among the occupy protestors.

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