Denis “the fixer” McDonough is President Obama’s current Chief of Staff.   [Keeping tabs on him is also a little fun hobby of mine.]   The Fixer Goes To Germany.

Hey, why not…. what else does he have to do ?

WH Chief of Staff Denis McDonough held "intensive talks" today in Berlin to ease strained relations over spying/surveillance matters.

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) July 22, 2014

WASHINGTON — In a sign of just how much German-American relations have frayed, President Obama sent his chief of staff to Berlin to try to smooth over the rupture caused by recent revelations of American spying on its ally, the White House said Tuesday.

Denis R. McDonough, the president’s chief of staff, met with his German counterpart in Berlin on Tuesday for what the White House called “intensive talks on the state of bilateral relations and future cooperation.” The American and German officials agreed to set up a dialogue “to address concerns of both sides,” the two sides said in identical statements issued by the White House and the Chancellery in Berlin.

The surprise trip by such a close confidant of Mr. Obama’s underscored the seriousness of the friction over recent disclosures about American espionage in Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel was already livid last year when she learned that her cellphone was being tapped by the National Security Agency, and the damage only deepened this month with the arrest of a German intelligence agent accused of spying for the United States.

Germany responded to the latest case by expelling the C.I.A. station chief in Berlin, who has now left the country. Mr. Obama and Ms. Merkel discussed the episode in a recent telephone call and American officials said Mr. McDonough’s trip originated from that conversation. The latest falling out came even as Mr. Obama is pressing Ms. Merkel to orchestrate a tougher European response to Russia’s intervention in Ukraine. (more…)

WASHINGTON –  A federal appeals court dealt a major blow to ObamaCare on Tuesday, ruling against the legality of some subsidies issued to people through the Affordable Care Act exchanges.
The ruling is likely to be appealed. And a separate federal appeals court — the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals — hours later issued its own ruling on a similar case that upheld the subsidies in their entirety.
But the decision Tuesday morning by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia nevertheless strikes at the foundation of the law by challenging subsidies that millions of people obtained through the federally run exchange known as HealthCare.gov.
The panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled 2-1 that the IRS went too far in extending subsidies to those who buy insurance through that website.
(more…)

A Texas Media outlet has just caught on to something we discovered and have shared with you.  Previously we identified the BIG THREE large non-profit corporations getting massive grants from DHS and HHS.   These were the “faith based groups” President Obama met in Dallas 7/9/14.
They are, listed smallest to largest:

• #3  Bronze –   U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and/or, U.S. Catholic Charities $70,000,000+
• #2  Silver – Southwest Key Programs Inc  $122,000,000+
• #1  Gold –  Baptist Child and Family Services Emergency Management Division (BCFS-EMD) $270,000,000+

Today we focus on one.  “Southwest Key Programs Inc” – KEYE TV in Austin Texas has just discovered the ruse and the tentacles of how these “private corporations”, ie. “non profit groups”, think ACORN, actually tie to their community and hide under the cover of funding from DHS/HHS Grants.  We found this specific Private Company nets 98.76% of earnings from government grants [2012 IRS form 990 pg 14].
When KEYE TV reporters go asking questions they discover the secrecy of HHS.  To quote Bruce Willis:  ..”welcome to the party pal“..

KEYE TV – TEXAS – More than $100 million of federal grant money this year has gone to an Austin based company that runs unaccompanied minor shelters across the country.
Its website says Southwest Key Programs is the largest provider of services to unaccompanied children in the United States. Their headquarters is in Austin, Texas.
A brief online description details the children they help, how they’re accepted and a short write up of the types of services provided.
A map provided by Southwest Key officials outlines their different locations and programs across the county. But if you have questions about the money it receives from the federal government for unaccompanied children officials with the non-profit aren’t talking.
While their corporate address is listed as right here in Austin when you try to ask about their child immigrant shelters you get directed to a federal agency — the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
But they’re not talking either. (more…)

Yes, this is related to the post directly underneath.

House Oversight Committee Investigation Unit – During a transcribed interview with congressional investigators on Thursday, July 17, IRS Deputy Associate Chief Counsel Thomas Kane, who supervises the IRS’s targeting scandal document production to Congress, testified that new developments now make him uncertain whether e-mail back-up tapes containing lost e-mails from key IRS targeting official Lois Lerner exist or not.

The new testimony is at odds with the June 13, 2014, memo sent to Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) by the IRS which reported that the IRS, “Confirmed that back-up tapes from 2011 no longer exist because they have been recycled.”  Kane had reviewed the June 13 memo but noted his current uncertainty with investigators.

Kane and a Committee investigator had the following exchange during Thursday’s transcribed interview: (more…)

WASHINGTON DC – Days after IRS officials said in a sworn statement that former top agency employee Lois G. Lerner’s computer memory had been wiped clean, the agency put out word to contractors Monday that it needs help to destroy at least another 3,200 hard drives.

The Internal Revenue Service solicitation for “media destruction” services reflects an otherwise routine job to protect sensitive taxpayer information, but it was made while the agency’s record destruction practices remain under a sharp congressional spotlight.
Congressional investigators of the IRS targeting of conservative groups have been hampered by the unexplained destruction of emails and other records of Ms. Lerner, the former head of the IRS tax-exempt division and a central figure in the scandal.
The loss of Ms. Lerner’s hard drive also raised broader questions about why the tax agency never reported the missing records to the National Archives and Records Administration, as required by the Federal Records Act. (more…)

Last week we shared the story of reports from inside the Border Patrol who refused to participate in removing the Murietta protesters.   When DHS riot squads were called into action by the Obama administration the Border Patrol warned they would ‘stand down’ and not enforce -or participate in- the aggressive tactic.
In response to that article many people said such a position was hard to believe because the current federal government has so radicalized and militarized so many agencies – people simply find it hard to believe the BP law authority would refuse to obey.
I kept quiet and chose not to argue the point.    However, what many people forget is how the Obama regime began their tenure.  Remember Brian Terry, or Fast n Furious?   The Obama administration has been openly and specifically hostile to the U.S. Border Patrol boots on the ground.   The BP know this administration does not care about their personal safety.   Today’s border activity is yet another example of why, if push comes to shove, the Border Patrol will side with citizens, not the administration:

FOX EXCLUSIVE: RINCON PENINSULA, Texas — U.S. Border Patrol agents on the American side of the Rio Grande were forced to take cover Friday night when high-caliber weaponry was fired at them from the Mexican side of the river, sources told FoxNews.com.
The weapons were fired at the U.S. side of the riverbank in the area of the Rincon Peninsula across the Rio Grande from Reynosa, Mexico, at about 8:30 p.m., sources said. Bullets ricocheted into an area where Border Patrol agents were positioned, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, told FoxNews.com.  (more…)

(National Journal) […]  When asked by CNN’s Candy Crowley for if U.S.-Russia relations were now “at Cold War levels,” Feinstein did not hesitate. “Yes,” the California Democrat replied.

“The issue is, where is Putin? I would say, Putin, you have to man up,” Feinstein said. “You should say if this was a mistake, which I hope it was, own up. even if it was, it was a horrendous mistake. … and it points out the futility of what is going on in Ukraine.” (more…)

“our people”?   Hmmm, where have we heard that before?  Oh yes, that’s right:

….in the mind of a hyphenated progressive, there’s always an adjective that precedes the word “American”.  I digress….

(Via Breitbart) On Saturday, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) said President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was a “down payment” to the Hispanic community before more grants of amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Speaking at the National Council of La Raza conference in Los Angeles, Gutierrez said that Obama assured him during a White House meeting with Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus last week that he would be as “generous and broad” as he can to “stop the deportation of our people each and every day.”
“You gave us a down payment when you freed 600,000 DREAMers from deportation,” Gutierrez said. “Now it is time for the president in the United States… [to] free the Mom and Dads of the DREAMers. And to go further. Be broad and expansive and generous.”  (read more)

Legal Insurrection has the details – CLICK HERE

Other notes:
As expected – It appears Obama is going to use taxpayer money through AmeriCorps to fund the legal representation for the Unaccompanied Alien Children  – Here’s a link to the Justice Department contract requirement.   [Backstory – You can get up to speed on this HERE and HERE ]
Of course the obvious issues are glaring and, well illegal. Section 292 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1362, states:

In any removal proceedings before an immigration judge and in any appeal proceedings before the Attorney General from any such removal proceedings, the person concerned shall have the privilege of being represented (at no expense to the Government) by such counsel, authorized to practice in such proceedings, as he shall choose. (Emphasis added.)

(more…)

Against the backdrop of both Israel (Netanyahu) and Egypt (el-Sisi) telling Secretary Kerry to stay out of the issues in the Gaza Strip – Kerry goes on the Sunday talk show circuit, and -during ‘hot mic’ candor- simultaneously reveals why Netanyahu and el-Sisi want Obama’s team kept out.  

(Via Daily Caller) Maybe there’s a reason the White House has been keeping John Kerry from Fox News.
Just moments after a testy exchange with “Fox News Sunday’s” Chris Wallace over what the Secretary of State perceived as repeated interruptions, Wallace played a clip captured while Kerry waited to appear on the Sunday news program.
Seemingly oblivious to the fact that the State Department camera in front of him and mic pinned on his lapel were live, America’s top diplomat harshly criticized the on-going Israeli operation in Gaza following news of Israeli army casualties and Palestinian civilian deaths.  (read more)