Wednesday, January 15, 2020

STAND: “You Have Always Been Loyal to This Nation, Now You Finally Have a President Who is Loyal To You”




When we see that justice is measured, not by due process, but by compulsion; when we see that in order to invoke our right to due process, we need to obtain permission from those who rebuke the constitution; when we see that justice is determined by those who leverage, not in law, but in politics; when we see that representatives get power over individual liberty by graft and by scheme, and our representatives don’t protect us against them, but protect them against us; when we see corruption holding influence and individual liberty so easily dispatched and nullified; we may well know that our freedom too is soon to perish….



CTH is often criticized for being too accurate outlining the schemes, and not putting enough emphasis on what actions can be done -by ordinary Americans- to counteract the duplicity and corruption amid DC politicians. Well, last year we outlined exactly what YOU can do when we wrote “STAND“.

It is the responsibility of each of us to stand, defiantly if needed, and support a President who is waging a battle against multiple adversaries on our behalf. “Stand” means be visible. “Stand” means let your voice be heard. “Stand” means telling your republican representatives what your expectations are. They represent us; WE are the people.

Why is this important?

Well, we cannot, we must not, count on Republican senators to do the right thing.  If there is one lesson we have all learned through the years it is that our representatives will only do the right thing if We The People demand it… loudly.  With impeachment moving to the Senate, the republican members must hear our voices loudest.

Stand“?

Your decision.

Find Your Senator Phone Number HERE


As we bear witness, anyone trying to convince us this entire assembly of our union is headed in the right direction, well, they might want to revisit their proximity to the 2020 election ballpark. Because they’re not just out of the city – they’re also out of the same state the election ballpark is located in….. Then again, the media know that.

David Mamet had a famous saying, essentially: …‘in order for democrats, liberals, progressives et al to continue their illogical belief systems they have to pretend not to know a lot of things’… By pretending ‘not to know’ there is no guilt, no actual connection to conscience. Denial of truth allows easier trespass.

This hate-filled Democrat ideology relies on our willingness to accept their lies, falsehoods, and scripted presentations; and then demand we grant benefit amid their seeds of doubt.

There’s a level of anger far deeper and more consequential than expressed rage or visible behavior, it’s called Cold Anger.

Cold Anger does not need to go to violence. For those who carry it, no conversation is needed when we meet. You cannot poll or measure it; specifically because most who carry it avoid discussion… And that decision has nothing whatsoever to do with any form of correctness.

We watched the passage of Obamacare at 1:38am on the day before Christmas Eve in 2009. We watched the Senate, then the House attempt passing Amnesty in 2014. We know exactly how it passed, and we know exactly why it passed. We don’t need to stand around talking about it….

We know what lies hidden behind “cloture” and the UniParty schemes.

We watched the 2009 $900+ billion Stimulus Bill being spent each year, every year, for seven consecutive years. Omnibus, Porkulous, QE1, QE2, Bailouts, Crony-Capitalism.
We know exactly how this works, and we know exactly why this ruse is maintained. We don’t need to stand around talking about it…. We’re beyond talking.

We accept that the entire Senate voted to block President Trump’s ability to use recess appointments in 2017, and 2018, and 2019. Every. Single. Democrat. And. Republican.

Cold Anger absorbs betrayal silently, often prudently.

We’ve waited each year, every year, for ten years, to see a federal budget, only to be given another Omnibus spending bill by “CONservative” politicians.

We’ve watched the ridiculing of cops, the riots, and the lack of support for laws, or their enforcement. We’ve been absorbing all that. We’ve been exposed to violence upon us by paid operatives of the organized DNC machine. We know; the media trying to hide it doesn’t change our level of information.

Cold Anger is not hatred, it is far more purposeful.

We watched in 2012 as the Democrat party thrice denied God during their convention. The doors to evil enterprise opened by official proclamation and request.

Cold Anger takes notice of the liars, even from a great distance – seemingly invisible to the mob. Cold Anger will still hold open the door for the riot goer. Mannerly.

We’ve watched our borders being intentionally unsecured.

We’ve watched Islamic Terrorists slaughter Americans as our politicians proclaim their uncertainty of motive. We know exactly who they are, and why they are doing it. We do not need to stand around discussing it…. we’re clear-eyed.

Cold Anger evidenced is more severe because it is more strategic, and more purposeful. Eric Cantor’s defeat, Matt Bevin’s victory, Brexit, Donald Trump’s highest vote tally in the history of presidential primaries or President Trump’s victory might aide your understanding.

Cold Anger does not gloat; it absorbs consistent vilification and ridicule as fuel. This sensibility does not want to exist, it is forced to exist in otherwise unwilling hosts – we also refuse to be destabilized by it.

Transgender bathrooms are more important than border security.

Illicit trade schemes, employment and the standard of living in Vietnam and Southeast Asia are more important to Wall Street and DC lobbyists, than the financial security of Youngstown Ohio.

We get it. We understand. We didn’t create that reality, we are simply responding to it.
The intelligence apparatus of our nation was weaponized against our candidate by those who controlled the levers of government. Now, with sanctimonious declarations they dismiss accountability.

Deliberate intent and prudence ensures we avoid failure. The course is thoughtful vigilance; it is a strategy devoid of emotion. The media can call us anything they want, it really doesn’t matter…. we’re far beyond the place where labels matter.

Foolishness and betrayal of our nation have served to reveal dangers within our present condition. Misplaced corrective action, regardless of intent, is neither safe nor wise. We know exactly who Donald Trump is, and we also know what he is not.

He is exactly what we need at this moment.

He is a necessary, defiant and glorious fighter.

He is our weapon.

Cold Anger is not driven to act in spite of itself; it drives a reckoning.

When the well attired leave the checkout line carrying steaks and shrimp using an EBT card, the door is still held open; yet notations necessarily embed.

When the U.S. flags lay gleefully undefended, they do not lay unnoticed. When the stars and stripes are controversial, yet a foreign flag is honored – we are paying attention.

When millionaire football players kneel down rather than honor our fallen soldiers and stand proud of our country, we see that. Check the NFL TV ratings – take note.

When a school community cannot openly pray, it does not mean the prayerful were absent.

When a liar seems to win, it is not without observation. Many – more than the minority would like to admit – know the difference between science, clocks and political agendas.

Cold Anger perceives deception the way the long-term battered absorb a blow in the hours prior to the pre-planned exit; with purpose.

A shield, or cry of micro-aggression will provide no benefit, nor quarter. Delicate sensibilities are dispatched like a feather in a hurricane.

We are patient, but also purposeful. Pushed far enough, decisions are reached.
[…] On the drive to and from the East Coast, I paid attention to the billboards and bumper-stickers. Folks, the people in “Fly over” country are PISSED, from the guy that guides hunters, to the mayors of towns and cities, to state senators congressmen and Governors who are voting to arrest and imprison federal law enforcement officials for enforcing federal gun laws that don’t agree with state law … The political pendulum has never, in the history of humanity, stayed on one side of a swing. The back lash from over reach has always been proportionate to how far off center it went before coming back … right now we’re staring at a whole hell of a lot of the country (about 80-90% of the land mass, as well as about 50+% of the population) that is FED UP. You really don’t want those guys to decide that the only way to fix it is to burn it down and start over… (more)
It’s too late…

This man has faced opposition that would overwhelm any other President. Our chosen President is constantly attacked by those holding a corrupt, conniving and Godless leftist ideology. It is our job now to stand with him, firm on his behalf.

To respond we must engage as an insurgency. We must modify our disposition to think like an insurgent. Insurgencies have nothing to lose. If insurgents are not victorious the system, which controls the dynamic, wins. However, if insurgents do nothing, the same system, which controls the dynamic, also wins.

Do nothing and we lose. Go to the mattresses, and we might win. The choice is ours.


The awakened American middle-class insurgency, led by Donald Trump, is an existential threat to the professional political class and every entity who lives in/around the professional political class. Their entire political apparatus is threatened by our insurgency. The political industry, all of corrupt governance, is threatened by our support through Donald Trump.

Decision time.

You know why the entire apparatus is united against President Trump. You know why the corrupt Wall Street financial apparatus is united against President Trump. You know why every institutional department, every lobbyist, every K-Street dweller, every career legislative member, staffer, and the various downstream economic benefactors, including the corporate media, all of it – all the above, are united against Donald Trump.

Donald Trump is an existential threat to the existence of a corrupt DC system we have exposed to his disinfecting sunlight. Donald Trump is the existential threat to every entity who benefits from that corrupt and vile system.

Global elites now stand with jaw-agape in horror as they witness the result. The value of multi-billion dollar contracts dispatched at our leisure. Trillion dollar multi-national trade deals, full of scheme and graft, left nothing more than tenuous propositions smashed asunder from the mere sound of our approach.

The fundamental construct within decades of their united global efforts to tear at the very fabric of our U.S.A is being eliminated. They too have nothing to lose; their desperation becomes visible within their apoplexy; and they’re damn sure displaying it.

Do not look away.

Throw aside the sense of discomfort and bear witness to the evil we oppose. Do not turn your eyes from the hatred focused in our direction. Stand firm amid the solace of our number and resolve to the task at hand.

Those who oppose our efforts are merely vile parasites quivering as they stare into the Cold Anger furnace of righteousness.

Who fuels that furnace?

…..US !

(202) 224 – 3121 [Extensions Here]


Gov. Northam Declares a State of Emergency To Keep Richmond Safe From Hordes of Law-Abiding Citizens

 Image result for cartoons about anti-gunners

 Article by Matt Vespa in "Townhall":

It’s Lobby Day in Richmond on Monday. It’s an activist and engaged citizen’s best day and probably one of the more annoying ones for those politicians in Virginia’s state legislature. It’s very different this year. For the first time in nearly two decades, the state is run by Democrats. They control both houses of the legislature and the governor’s mansion. It’s hell on Earth. Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun activities have paid off. It took a few election cycles and a ton of money, but the houses flipped. It’s also a not so subtle reminder that the Virginia Republican Party needs to wake the hell up. We have a supermajority in the House of Delegates. What has been going on out there? Nearly a quarter of VA’s State Senate races had no Republican opponent. I don’t care if some of these races were kin D+50 districts, you must challenge, and you must find people who can win statewide. It’s been ten years since the VA GOP got someone who can win. After a decade of mismanagement, this is what we have now; a Virginia legislature aimed at turning us into Maryland. 

In keeping with this day of civic engagement, the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) plans to swarm the capital with their people demanding lawmakers end their anti-gun push. It’s no secret that Democrats are gunning for a hardcore, anti-Second Amendment agenda with this new session. The VCDL is a state-based gun rights group, but they’re excellent. They’re organizing multiple buses to get their people to voice their concerns and opinions to their representatives. And this has apparently made Gov. Ralph Northam very nervous. He’s declaring a state of emergency, banning firearms on capitol grounds over threats or something (via WaPo):

Gov. Ralph Northam on Wednesday announced a temporary ban on firearms and other weapons on the Capitol grounds, saying he was responding to “credible intelligence” about potential violence at a gun-rights rally planned for Monday.
The governor said he will declare a state of emergency from Friday evening to Tuesday night and prohibit weapons on the Capitol grounds, including firearms, sticks, bats and chains.
“We’re seeing threats of violence,” Northam (D) said at a news conference. “We’re seeing threats of armed confrontation and assault on our Capitol.”
He asked that non-essential state employees not come to work Monday, a state holiday that is the traditional citizen lobbying day during the General Assembly session. Legislative staffers are normally on duty since the legislature is in session on that day.
As Democratic lawmakers vow to pass a variety of gun-control measures, Monday’s rally has drawn interest from militias and extremist groups across the country, raising security concerns in Richmond. On Friday, a Democratic-majority legislative committee banned weapons inside the Capitol and an adjacent legislative office building.
[…]
The governor began his announcement by stating his belief in the right to debate, assemble and bear arms. But he said authorities had “received credible intelligence” — some gathered via “dark web channels used by white nationalists outside Virginia” — that groups with “malicious plans” were planning to attend the rally.

Townhall has been to VCDL’s 2016 rally on Lobby Day. There were no neo-Nazis. There are no such people in VCDL as far as I can see. This is a rally in support of freedom, the Constitution, and the Second Amendment That was not what Charlottesville was about. This is insane. Folks, it’s not news, but Democrats hate us. They hate people who support gun rights, gun owners, Republicans, and anyone who isn’t from Northern Virginia or the Richmond area. First, white nationalists and gun rights activists are not the same. The former has always been around. The former will always be in the extreme minority. This isn’t going to be like Charlottesville. At the same time, maybe what could be gleaned from this is that Democrats know they might have awakened a sleeping giant in the state when it comes to constitutionally protected rights to firearm ownership. If this is the reaction from the governor concerning hordes of law-abiding citizens descending into Richmond for Lobby Day, then it provides for some pretty sad commentary. At the same time, he’s a Democrat—they will always disappoint.

Right now, Democrats are mulling a so-called assault weapons ban, limits on magazine sizes, expanded background checks, increasing the age to purchase firearms, some bans on certain types of ammunition, like hollow points and green tips, and a return to the one-gun-a-month law. Something is going to be passed, but maybe with some pressure, pro-liberty voters can scare Democrats from the more extreme measures. Some Democrats were promoting Northam deploying the National Guard to confiscate firearms, which he can do—sadly. Election matter. Elections have consequences and that cuts both ways. Conservative voters in Virginia are learning the hard way.

In the meantime, Northam, who survived a blackface-wearing scandal, is Mr. State of Emergency because people he doesn’t agree with are about to enter their city to speak with their representatives. But let’s cite the three of four losers who made an incendiary post on Reddit and blow that out of proportion to declare such a measure. Eyeroll. 

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2020/01/15/northam-gun-ban-n2559587

McConnell locks in schedule for..

McConnell locks in schedule for start of impeachment trial

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has officially locked in the schedule for the first few days of the Senate impeachment trial against President Trump after the House formally notified the chamber that it had appointed managers.

McConnell, speaking from the Senate floor, set up an agreement for the House managers to return to the Senate on Thursday at noon to formally present the articles of impeachment. The two articles are also expected to be read from the floor on Thursday.

Chief Justice John Roberts, under the deal that passed the Senate by unanimous consent, will arrive at 2 p.m. on Thursday, at which point he will be sworn in to preside over the trial. Roberts will then swear in all 100 senators.

"For the information of all senators, a few minutes ago, the Senate was notified that the House of Representatives is finally ready to proceed with their articles of impeachment. So by unanimous consent, we have just laid some of the groundwork that will structure the next several days," McConnell said the Senate floor.

House staff and impeachment managers were closely followed as they walked across the Capitol on Wednesday evening to kick start the Senate trial, delivering a message announcing that the House had appointed managers to present the impeachment articles. House Democrats say they also handed over the articles. 

The seven managers walked into the Senate chamber, with Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) leading the group. They stood on the sidelines of the chamber as McConnell established the schedule.

Roughly two dozen Senate Democrats were also in their seats as they awaited the House managers and as McConnell set the schedule. They were spotted chatting among themselves as they awaited their House colleagues, something they will not be able to do during the trial because senators have to sit silently.

The bipartisan nature of setting the Senate's initial schedule is a break with the overly partisan nature of the looming impeachment trial.

The trial is expected to start "in earnest" on Tuesday. Republicans will pass a rules resolution next week along party lines to punt a decision on witnesses until midtrial. Democrats wanted an agreement on specific witnesses at the outset.

"This is a difficult time for our country, but this is precisely the kind of time for which the Framers created the Senate," McConnell said after he set the schedule.

The GOP leader spoke shortly after the House clerk notified the upper chamber of the House's appointment of the impeachment trial managers on the Senate floor.

"I'm confident this body can rise above short-termism and factional fever and serve the long-term best interests of our nation. We can do this, and we must," McConnell said. 

Don’t Be Fooled By...


Don't be fooled by 
liberal dark money influence

Hypocrisy in politics is typical, but every so often, it reaches a new low.  Such is the case with a recent political ad attacking dark money's influence in politics — an ad funded by dark money.  The group Future Majority did exactly that as part of their 2018 efforts to elect Democrats to Congress.  Now groups like Future Majority are focused on denying President Trump re-election in 2020. 

Democrats have no good response to the president's popularity and his accomplished record, so they turn to dark money–funded smear campaigns to discredit him and his supporters.  Politico reports that Future Majority — one such dark money group — is prepared to invest $60 million in swing states like Wisconsin and Michigan in 2020 to defeat the president. 

Another dark money group is Arabella Advisors, orchestrators of many supposed "grassroots" campaigns on issues ranging from climate change to President Trump's Supreme Court nominees.  But in reality, Arabella doesn't organize actual grassroots opposition to the Trump administration; it creates fake groups that pump out phony opposition through subsidiaries such as the Sixteen Thirty Fund. 

One Arabella campaign focuses on President Trump's tax cuts.  Liberals want to replace the Trump tax cuts with tax hikes to finance more spending.  But repealing the Trump tax cuts would be disastrous to the economy, as they allow working people to keep more of what they earn, and they are incentivizing businesses to re-invest in America.  

According to Edwin Feulner, the founder of the Heritage Foundation, "[t]he tax cut contributed to the strong economy we've been enjoying, leading many businesses to hire more and more workers.  The United States added more than 2.6 million new jobs in the year following the passage of the tax cut — nearly a 25 percent increase from the previous year." 

Another area where dark money groups oppose the Trump administration is the battle over government regulation of business and industry.  President Trump repealed many Obama-era regulations and is working with Congress to simplify the regulatory system.

For example, liberal groups are fighting deregulation in the lending industry and are actively working to limit the efforts of people who are struggling with bad credit to get loans.  They claim that short-term loans offered by payday lenders are predatory, and they continually press for artificial controls — rate caps — placed on this one segment of the lending industry — not large banks, credit unions, credit card companies, etc.  

But when government regulators attempt to control one segment of a market or industry, the exact opposite of the desired goal usually occurs.  Taking away lending choices for consumers, without providing viable alternatives, serves no one.  Those who take out payday loans understand the risks and need a short-term cash infusion.  

Government meddling in free markets usually hurts consumers.  The Employment Policies Institute analyzed Georgia and North Carolina after both states implemented a rate cap and found that "[w]hen compared to other states, a November 2007 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found Chapter 7 bankruptcy filings and the number of costly bounced checks both rose in North Carolina and Georgia."

Liberal dark money groups consistently support proposals expanding the scope of government while limiting consumer options.  Arabella Advisors' backing of the Affordable Care Act fits this pattern, as the ACA expanded the size of government while eliminating many private health care options.

Instead of admitting the ACA failed, these groups are proposing even more government interfering to try and fix problems they created. If candidates backed by these groups gain power, they will likely push for Medicare for All further expanding the role of government.

Medicare for All would eliminate private health care and force everyone into a one-size-fits-all system that cannot meet the needs of the sick.  Enacting Medicare for all would decrease the quality of care and increase patient costs. 

What are liberals so afraid of?  Perhaps it's the president's record of lowering taxes, eliminating needless and costly government regulations, and working to find ways of lowering health care costs.  Tax cuts, deregulation, and improving health care are three critical issues that will drive voters to the polls next year.  If the president loses re-election, dark money Democrats will work tirelessly to roll back the president's accomplishments and return to the days of big government inefficiency and a flatlined economy.   

The president's actions are boosting the stock market, raising consumer confidence, and drawing fresh investment in American business and industry.  That means millions of higher-paying jobs for working -class citizens and improvement of quality of life.  As the election season advances into 2020, we must expose the liberal dark money operations that threaten the progress of the administration's last four years and jeopardize our revived free-market system. 

Ken Blackwell is the former treasurer of state in Ohio.  He is an adviser to the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. and serves on the boards of directors of the Club for Growth and the National Taxpayers Union.



Laura Ingraham Blocks Devin Nunes from Discussing Mary McCord Working With Adam Schiff

creditsundance at CTH

Do Laura Ingraham and Mary McCord have a history together in/around Washington DC schools, law firms, clerks, social circles etc?

Because obviously Ingraham doesn’t want Devin Nunes to discuss the revelations about former DOJ-NSD head Mary McCord now working with Adam Schiff on the impeachment agenda.  WATCH [@02:50]



The key to understanding the corrupt endeavor behind the fraudulent “whistle-blower” complaint, doesn’t actually originate with ICIG Atkinson. The key person is the former head of the DOJ National Security Division, Mary McCord.

Prior to becoming IC Inspector General, Michael Atkinson was the Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General and Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General of the National Security Division, Mary McCord.

It is very safe to say Mary McCord and Michael Atkinson have a working relationship from their time together in 2016 and 2017 at the DOJ-NSD. Atkinson was Mary McCord’s senior legal counsel; essentially her lawyer.

McCord was the senior intelligence officer who accompanied Sally Yates to the White House in 2017 to confront then White House Counsel Don McGahn about the issues with Michael Flynn and the drummed up controversy over the Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak phone call.

Additionally, Mary McCord, Sally Yates and Michael Atkinson worked together to promote the narrative around the incoming Trump administration “Logan Act” violations. This silly claim (undermining Obama policy during the transition) was the heavily promoted, albeit manufactured, reason why Yates and McCord were presumably concerned about Flynn’s contact with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. It was nonsense.

However, McCord didn’t just disappear in 2017 when she retired from the DOJ-NSD. She resurfaced as part of the Lawfare group assembly after the mid-term election in 2018.

THIS IS THE KEY.

Mary McCord joined the House effort to impeach President Trump; as noted in this article from Politico:
“I think people do see that this is a critical time in our history,” said Mary McCord, a former DOJ official who helped oversee the FBI’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and now is listed as a top outside counsel for the House in key legal fights tied to impeachment. “We see the breakdown of the whole rule of law. We see the breakdown in adherence to the Constitution and also constitutional values.”
“That’s why you’re seeing lawyers come out and being very willing to put in extraordinary amounts of time and effort to litigate these cases,” she added. (link)

Former DOJ-NSD Head Mary McCord is currently working for the House Committee (Adam Schiff) who created the impeachment scheme.

Now it becomes critical to overlay that detail with how the “whistle-blower” complain was organized. Mary McCord’s former NSD attorney, Michael Atkinson, is the intelligence community inspector general who brings forth the complaint.

The “whistle-blower” had prior contact with the staff of the committee. This is admitted. So essentially the “whistle-blower” almost certainly had contact with Mary McCord; and then ICIG Michael Atkinson modified the whistle-blower rules to facilitate the outcome.
There is the origination. That’s where the fraud starts.

The coordination between Mary McCord, the Whistle-blower and Michael Atkinson is why HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff will not release the transcript from Atkinson’s testimony.

It now looks like the Lawfare network constructed the ‘whistle-blower’ complaint aka a Schiff Dossier, and handed it to allied CIA operative Eric Ciaramella to file as a formal IC complaint. This process is almost identical to the Fusion-GPS/Lawfare network handing the Steele Dossier to the FBI to use as the evidence for the 2016/2017 Russia conspiracy.

Atkinson’s conflict-of-self-interest, and/or possible blackmail upon him by deep state actors who most certainly know his compromise, likely influenced his approach to this whistleblower complaint. That would explain why the Dept. of Justice Office of Legal Counsel so strongly rebuked Atkinson’s interpretation of his responsibility with the complaint.

In the Justice Department’s OLC opinion, they point out that Atkinson’s internal justification for accepting the whistleblower complaint was poor legal judgement. [See Here] I would say Atkinson’s decision is directly related to his own risk exposure:


Michael Atkinson was moved from DOJ-NSD to become the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) in 2018. What we end up with is a brutally obvious, convoluted, network of corrupt officials; each carrying an independent reason to cover their institutional asses… each individual interest forms a collective fraudulent scheme inside the machinery of government.

Michael Atkinson and Mary McCord worked together in 2016/2017 on the stop-Trump surveillance operation (FISA application via DOJ-NSD). Then, following the 2018 mid-term election, in 2019 Mary McCord and Michael Atkinson team up again on another stop-Trump operation, each in a different position, and -working with others- coordinate the House impeachment plan via the ‘whistle-blower’ complaint.

While Devin Nunes is focused on the false statements of ICIG Michael Atkinson, the key is the contact between the ‘whistle-blower’ (Eric Ciaramella) and the House Intelligence Committee via Mary McCord.

There’s a very strong likelihood this entire impeachment construct was manufactured out of nothing.

National Security Council resistance member Alexander Vindman starts a rumor about the Trump-Zelenskyy phone call, which he shares with CIA operative Eric Ciaramella (a John Brennan resistance associate). Ciaramella then makes contact with resistance ally Mary McCord in her role within the House. McCord then helps Ciaramella create a fraudulent whistle-blower complaint via her former colleague, now ICIG, Michael Atkinson….

…And that’s how this impeachment operation gets started.


Rapinoe Signals She May...

Rapinoe Signals She May Defy Olympic Rules & Kneel Anyway








Infamous Anthem Kneeler Rapinoe Issues Defiant Response to Olympic Rules.

Soccer star Megan Rapinoe suggested on Instagram this week she may defy Olympic rules and kneel or otherwise protest at this summer’s games in Tokyo, despite a ban by the International Olympic Committee on using the games to make political statements.

Her reasoning: “We will not be silenced.”

It’s interesting how she says she’s being silenced. You certainly couldn’t tell, given the kind of reporting a simple statement on social media generated.

Rapinoe, a striker on U.S. Women’s National Team, shot to superstardom during last summer’s FIFA Women’s World Cup for reasons not necessarily connected to her playing acumen (which was pretty spectacular, it must be said).

Rather, it was a never-ending fusillade of political statements of the liberal variety which made her a darling of #TheResistance.

While most of her statements had to do with her position at the helm of a lawsuit demanding equal pay for the women’s national team, what everyone heard were her statements regarding that Bad Orange Man — including a clip where she said “I’m not going to the f—ing White House” if the national team were to win.

Among her other statements was the decision to not participate in the national anthem during Women’s World Cup games — a move which seemed oddly self-defeating given the fact she would spend the next 90 minutes on the pitch wearing the uniform of the national team.

She’d started kneeling for the anthem in in 2016 to support Colin Kaepernick, saying “it is because of my utmost respect for the flag and the promise it represents that I have chosen to demonstrate in this way.”

It was primarily these acts of bravery, one could guess, that landed her the 2019 Sportsperson of the Year award from Sports Illustrated, among other honors.

Do you think Megan Rapinoe should be able to kneel during the national anthem at the Olympics? 


The IOC seems to be less impressed with this kind of stuff, having banned forms of political protest at official venues — including on the medal stands — as “divisive disruption” under new guidelines.

The Olympics “are not and must never be a platform to advance political or any other divisive ends,” IOC President Thomas Bach said, according to Fox News.

“Our political neutrality is undermined whenever organizations or individuals attempt to use the Olympic Games as a stage for their own agendas, as legitimate as they may be.”

The new guidelines were released last Thursday, according to NBC News.

They clarify the Olympic Charter’s Rule 50, a long-standing stricture prohibiting political statements on the field or in the arena.

The new guidelines stated this included hand gestures with political intent, disrespecting opponents on the medal stand or taking a knee.

“We needed clarity and they wanted clarity on the rules,” IOC Athletes’ Commission chair Kirsty Coventry said. “The majority of athletes feel it is very important that we respect each other as athletes.”

The majority of news stories about the new guidelines mentioned the example of John Carlos and Tommie Smith, the two American runners who raised the black power salute on the podium after the 200-meter event at the 1968 Mexico City games.

In an Instagram story Friday, Rapinoe referenced it, too:
“So much for being done about the protests,” Rapinoe said. “So little being done about what we are protesting about. We will not be silenced.”

Right.

No matter how you feel about Carlos and Smith and their politicization of the Olympics, the salient points remain that no one would remember their names or their cause had they not raised their fists during the medal ceremony, and that they faced overwhelming criticism at home for what they did.

Rapinoe is one of the biggest sports stars in America and was almost universally celebrated by the media for her political statements during last summer’s World Cup.

If MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace were around in 1968, for instance, it’d be difficult to imagine her calling Carlos and Smith “chicken soup for your soul” like she did with Rapinoe, and not just because that saccharine book of platitudes hadn’t been written yet.

Furthermore, it’s not as if Carlos and Smith could go on Instagram and rep black power to a few million followers — which is exactly how Rapinoe announced she wasn’t going to be silenced.

And, indeed, she’s not exactly being silenced.

Athletes are allowed to say whatever they want on social media or to traditional media.

If Rapinoe wants to spend her time in Japan telling everyone how oppressed she is, she’s free to do so.

No one’s silencing her there, either — the IOC is merely saying the field of play isn’t the place for that sort of thing.

This is pretty much on-brand for Rapinoe, however.

She’s like the loose-cannon cop of sports-based social justice: She doesn’t play by your rules, boomer.

She’s not going to be silenced. You want to tell her she’s free to state her political beliefs anywhere but the field of play? Silence!

If the raison d’être of Rapinoe’s decision to represent her country at the Olympic games is to protest her country there, why bother showing up at all?

Abnegation is the ultimate statement of protest in this station, after all.

Forget kneeling for the national anthem; her refusal to wear the uniform of her nation would speak louder than anything she could do on the field or podium.

One needn’t think too hard why she wouldn’t want to do that, however.

For Megan Rapinoe and her generation of political activists, the rose of self-expression must always come without the thorn of negative repercussions, no matter how mild they may be.

C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal for four years.


The New Post-Trump ...

National Review


The New Post-Trump Constitution
President Trump speaks to reporters with Vice President Mike Pence as he arrives to address a closed Senate Republican policy lunch on Capitol Hill, January 9, 2019. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

The new normal: Impeachment as a routine partisan tool, endless investigations, lying under oath with impunity, surveillance of political enemies, zero accountability …

T he Left sees Donald Trump’s comportment, rallies, and tweets as a new low in presidential behavior that justifies extraordinary countermeasures. But Trump’s personal characteristics are idiosyncratic and may or may not become institutionalized by subsequent presidents. And it is not as if liberal icons such as FDR, LBJ, JFK, and Bill Clinton suddenly became saintly in office.

What is far scarier is the reaction to Trump, in both the constitutional and political sense. What follows are likely the new norms for the next generation of presidents, and they will probably be equally applied to Democrats who implemented them in the Trump era.

1) Private presidential phone calls with foreign leaders will be leaked and printed in the major media. The point will be not so much to air breaking news as to embarrass the president or to use such disclosures to stymie his foreign policy. Those who leak such information will be canonized as part of a “resistance.” Prominent officials in government will publish anonymous op-eds in the New York Times bragging about how they are daily undermining a new president’s administration.

2) Impeachment is now a casual affair. It requires no report of illegal or unethical behavior by a special counsel or special prosecutor. It will not be bipartisan but solely the action of the opposition party in the House when it is in the majority.

Public support will not matter. Much less will it be needed. Impeachment will be applied equally to a first- or second-term presidency. And it will become useful in a reelection year to help drive down an incumbent’s popularity.

Even when there is no chance of conviction in the Senate — as when the impeachment indictment is weak and the president’s own party controls the upper House — impeachment will nonetheless proceed, because it is now seen as a banal, politicized vote of no confidence and thus an occasionally useful political tool.

There will be no time limit on or shelf life of a successful impeachment. Once a president is impeached, the writ may simply sit until the House majority feels that the climate or polls are ripe to refer the articles to the Senate for trial, whether in days, weeks, months, or years. The writ’s clauses entailing supposed wrongdoing may post facto grow or shrink as news headlines and presidential popularity gyrate. Impeachment will begin not with a Judiciary Committee but with a House Intelligence Committee, whose chair will decide rules of cross-examination and witness appearances in secret in the basement of the House. Information will be selectively released to the media by the chair of the House Intelligence Committee alone to massage impeachment momentum.

3) There will be no need to specify “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors” in any impeachment writ against a president. “Obstruction” and the “abuse of power” will do well enough. Either can be defined largely in terms of ongoing policy differences with the opposition party. Obstructing the opposition’s effort to impeach a president and abort his agenda is now an abuse of power.

4) Special counsels and special prosecutors are now irrelevant. Their appointment will be seen as patently political if not redundant. If such ossified appointees find no evidence of presidential wrongdoing, it will not matter, because their appointments were always designed foremost to embarrass and weaken a president and detract from his role as chief executive rather than find concrete evidence of wrongdoing. Whatever data they find can be used for political advantage, even if it is contradicted by the special counsels’ own eventual conclusions. The key for a special prosecutor will be to draw out the investigation — in terms of time, money, and resources — and serve, in the manner of the new definition of impeachment, as a sword of Damocles over the president’s head.

5) The Washington top echelon of the CIA, FBI, and NSA will be largely immune from oversight. If they wish to spy on a presidential candidate or curtail the options of a sitting president, they will easily use their powers of surveillance, leaking, and spying for political purposes — purposes mostly defined as protecting the status quo of the permanent government. Upon retirement, such intelligence heads will retain their security clearances and use this inside access to obtain lucrative analyst billets on cable news channels deemed hostile to the incumbent administration. No one will care much when an FBI or CIA director lies under oath to Congress. There will be no indictments when high intelligence officials deliberately mislead federal courts, lie to federal investigators and the public, and conspire to derail political campaigns.

6) Reverse targeting of political opponents will be the normal behavior of intelligence agencies working closely with an incumbent lame-duck administration. Political rivals and opponents can be surveilled by warrants that are aimed nominally at third-party targets. The names of surveilled political opponents then can be unmasked when presidential appointees request it — the more unmaskings, and the more extraneous they are, the better. And the ensuing information will be leaked to the popular press with impunity.

7) The media, like academia and Hollywood, are now an extension of the progressive party. The recalibrated education and entertainment industries are expected, as part of their job security, to aid liberal agendas, with no need to worry that they’ll lose their reputations as disinterested and unbiased institutions. There is no longer any such thing as being unbiased. The new mantra is that everyone and all outlets have points of view, so we might as well recognize that there is nothing wrong in expressing and promoting them for political and ideological advantage.

8) Presidential candidates can hire foreign nationals to aid their campaign by collecting embarrassing innuendo and rumor — almost always false — and then use both high government officials and members of the Washington and New York media to disseminate and publicize damaging rumors about a political rival. This gambit will work especially during the latter months of an election campaign, during a presidential transition, and in the early months of a nascent presidency when it is not fully adjusted to Washington protocol and therefore deemed especially vulnerable. The protocol will be to create three or four firewalls between the hit team and the candidate, feed the “research” to the DOJ, FBI, and CIA, and seed it in the media — in essence using foreign sources to smear a rival campaign while accusing one’s opponent of doing exactly that.

9) FISA courts will favor status quo government narratives, especially in matters of controversial candidates and political races. We should assume that the federal courts will believe almost anything the FBI and DOJ present as evidence in their bid to obtain permission from the court to spy on political candidates and presidents. Such surveillance will become commonplace, and the court will think there is nothing particularly wrong with filing incomplete, misleading, or untrue documents in support of surveillance requests, given the general consensus that unorthodox presidential candidates and presidents must be stymied.

10) Whistleblowers never need to be identified. They need not have any firsthand knowledge of any wrongdoing. They need not contact the relevant inspector general to first file their grievance. Rather, they will work with the opposition party in Congress to help craft complaints and forge strategies that might lead to impeachment inquiries.

This is the new political climate. It is obvious that both George W. Bush and Barack Obama could easily have been impeached under such protocols after they lost their party’s majority in the House of Representative. From now on, their successors will likely enjoy no such exemptions.

We are now on new anti-constitutional grounds, and the United States will probably never return to the constitutional customs and traditions of its first 233 years. The architects of this revolution were not arrayed in sunglasses and epaulets, or in business suits and wing tips, with briefcases. They were hip, cool, and progressive, and they boasted that they did all of this for us, the proverbial people, to cheers from cultural icons, media heavyweights, and those with advanced degrees.

The United States, at least as we knew it, came to an end,
not with a loud right-wing bang, but with an insidious progressive whimper.



NRO contributor Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at
the Hoover Institution and the author, most recently, of The Case for Trump@vdhanson