Confirmation hearings for President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming cabinet are scheduled to begin tomorrow, Tuesday, January 14th.

The senatorial snakes will each take up careful positioning.  Doug Collins for Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Doug Burgum for Secretary of the Interior, and Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense are each scheduled for confirmation hearings in the Senate tomorrow.

With committee passage strongly likely, former Congressman Doug Collins will likely garner more than 60 votes in the full Senate. Former Governor Doug Bergum will also likely glide through the committee review, with around 70 votes likely in the full Senate. However, Pete Hegseth is where the challenge will become first visible.

Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth is viewed as the first potential scalp to be taken in the upper chamber.   The first hurdle is getting out of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss) and Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-RI).

The full slate of Democrat members are likely to oppose Hegseth under the justification of his personal attributes not being of strong enough moral character to lead the military.  The women on the committee will face strong pressure to reject Hegseth due to perceived sexism and misconduct.  No one knows what the FBI background check has uncovered, but it will likely be shaped during the predictable confrontation.

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“This was no small thing, to restore a republic after it had fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may have been that our task was impossible. Yet, if we did not try then how would we know it could not be done? And if we did not try, it most certainly would not be done. The Founders’ Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, would have been lost.”

“But I tell you this: We did not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we made with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from this day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.”

~ Mike Vanderboegh (adapted)

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

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Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

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As the Senate begins the confirmation process….. A POINT:

“If I understand this correctly, the Senate Intel Committee will only approve Trump’s nominee for ODNI if she agrees to support an un-Constitutional provision that permits the government that none of us trust to illegally surveille American citizens without a warrant…but a provision that also makes an exception for members of Congress or their staff, who presumably value their privacy and don’t want to be illegally surveilled.

Meanwhile, President Biden is preparing to issue a blanket pardon of all the bad actors who illegally surveilled, wiretapped, sued, imprisoned and tried to assassinate his political enemies, so that no one can legally surveille, wiretap, sue or imprison them…and they get off scott-free.

Do I have that right?”  ~LionTigerBear

Yes, you have that encapsulation correct.  Additionally, the discussion of Joe Biden pardons -both metered and predicted- outlines the ideological mindset behind those who believe they rule over us.

If you pull back from the granular debate and think about it, none of the FISA justifications align with reality.

The FISA system is a designated secret court system that is said to only pertain to “foreign nationals.”

Ok, so if we accept the premise. Foreign nationals do not have U.S. constitutional protection. So why does the surveillance and intercept of them require secret U.S. courts?

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The firefighting in the Los Angeles area continues with a moderate respite in the Santa Anna winds.  However, the death toll continues to rise.

(The Guardian) The death toll from the Eaton and Palisades fires that have consumed large swathes of Los Angeles county – and are still less than 30% contained – has risen to 24, according to medical examiners.

The county of Los Angeles medical examiner published a list of fatalities without giving details of any identities. Eight of the dead were found in the Palisades fire zone, and 16 in the Eaton fire zone, the document said.

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Confirming earlier reports, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) member, Senator James Lankford, appears on Meet the Press to confirm that Tulsi Gabbard’s change in position on FISA-702 now gains his supportive vote.  Senator Lankford will support Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence.  (WATCH – prompted 1:03):

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Senator Lankford flat out lies in his response when he says, “702 has nothing to do with American citizens.” That is a lie.  The very element “702” only pertains to an American citizen, no one else.   Foreign persons do not have constitutional protections, only American citizens do.  The FISA-702 statute is specifically designated for Americans who are “inadvertently captured” during foreign intelligence intercepts.

[Also, notice how every Sunday interview begins with a media demand that California be financially supported by congress.  They never did that for Western North Carolina.]

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Eh, this could get messy.

Apparently, Steve Bannon was talking to media in Italy and said some rather confrontational things about Elon Musk.

(CP) “I will have Elon Musk run out of here by Inauguration Day,” Bannon told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera this week. “He will not have a blue pass to the White House, he will not have full access to the White House, he will be like any other person.”

“He is a truly evil guy, a very bad guy. I made it my personal thing to take this guy down,” Bannon added. “Before, because he put money in, I was prepared to tolerate it; I’m not prepared to tolerate it anymore.”

[…] “This thing of the H-1B visas, it’s about the entire immigration system is gamed by the tech overlords, they use it to their advantage, the people are furious,” Bannon said, noting that “76 percent of engineers working in Silicon Valley are non-Americans.”

[…] “Peter Thiel, David Sachs, Elon Musk, are all white South Africans,” Bannon said. “He should go back to South Africa. Why do we have South Africans, the most racist people on earth, white South Africans, we have them making any comments at all on what goes on in the United States?” (source)

This is like watching two Rams butt heads.

At the end of the day, thankfully Donald Trump is not Nikki Haley.  Optimal solutions.

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Vice President JD Vance appears on Fox News Sunday to discuss current events and political intents for the Trump-Vance administration.

Starting with a pledge to make sure an efficient FEMA responds to the needs of California fire victims, Vance then moves on to discuss the border objective on day #1, the deportation agenda and the measures the Trump administration will take to shut down the open southern border.

Vance then moves to discussing the economic agenda and onto the objectives of the Trump administration to pardon January 6th detainees.  For those J6 protestors who committed “acts of violence,” there will be no sympathy.  However, for those who are incarcerated simply for walking through the Capitol building, pardons will be considered.  WATCH:

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In this segment of Glenn Greenwald’s monologue, he outlines the background of the IC opposition to Tulsi Gabbard and how that pressure forced Gabbard to change her position on FISA-702 authorization. {Background}

Tulsi has been a prior critic of the warrantless surveillance of Americans through the FISA-702 process.  However, in order to get confirmed to President Trump’s cabinet as the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard has been forced to reverse her opposition to FISA-702.  This is how the DC Deep State operates.

Without getting a single Democrat vote, Gabbard would rely upon the Republican senators supporting her.  The republican senators will not support her unless she agrees to continue the surveillance state as it is currently utilized.  Gabbard is an example of what We The People are up against in this confrontation with DC politicians who support a weaponized surveillance state.  WATCH:

To be fair, an argument can be made that Mrs. Gabbard is saying that she is going to keep FISA but have a stricter threshold for its use, and that would still be a change for the better in protecting citizens from its widespread use to surveil us at whim. Keeping FISA doesn’t necessarily mean she can’t affect a lack of it’s use domestically.  However, that is somewhat hopeium and wish-casting.

Given the extreme nature of how the 702 processes have been used, and combined with the new AI tools being constructed to exploit the metadata capture of all American citizens to expedite the surveillance results, it is critical to find actionable control mechanisms before the next reauthorization comes up again.

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Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede said in a joint press conference with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen that he’s ready to speak with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

(VIA DAILY MAIL) – Greenland’s leader, Múte Egede, has expressed his willingness to engage in negotiations with President-elect Trump – although it won’t be over American potentially gaining control of the country.

Instead, the discussions would focus on the future of the mineral-rich Arctic territory, with a clear emphasis that Greenland’s people have no interest in becoming Americans.

Speaking at a press conference in Denmark on Friday, which holds nominal sovereignty over Greenland, Egede acknowledged the strategic importance of Greenland to the U.S. and said he was open to discussing areas of mutual interest. (more)

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