Friday, May 15, 2020

No, Obamagate Is Not a Trump Diversion


Article by David Limbaugh in "PJMedia":

No, President Donald Trump is not ranting and raving about Obamagate to keep himself center stage or to distract attention from COVID-19, as liberal media are suggesting. They still don’t get Trump.

Two recent columns contend that Trump has ulterior motives in harping on Obamagate — the notion that the Obama administration tried to destroy Trump with the myth that he colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election.

Wrong. How about we draw the most obvious inferences from Trump’s statements instead of the liberal establishment’s theories, which are far more outlandish than the Obamagate conspiracy they’re ridiculing.

Everyone knows that Trump has long been outraged by the Russia hoax, and with good reason. Even after he has been thoroughly vindicated of this frame job, the perpetrators have escaped accountability, and the left still pretends Trump is the guilty party.

Trump was effectively exonerated when the vaunted, high-powered, and obscenely-funded Mueller team couldn’t find a shred of evidence to tie Trump to Russian election meddling. Now, with the revelation that Obama administration officials and the FBI collaborated to incriminate General Michael Flynn, we have a smoking .357 Magnum in the hands of scores of those officials.

It is the liberal media — not Trump — who are trying to divert the public’s attention from a story — the one showcasing the Democrats’ complicity.

If we had never heard of COVID-19, Trump would be railing against this corruption even more vigorously than he is now, because most of his day is consumed by virus-related health and economic issues. But don’t bother telling that to Trump-obsessed journos.

CNN’s Oliver Darcy writes that although the virus has killed 82,000 and left millions unemployed, Trump and his conservative media allies are “constructing a separate alternate reality to keep their fans distracted from the news and outraged at the long-standing villains in the right-wing media universe.”

Though this might stun Darcy, we hayseed Trump deplorables are capable of walking and chewing tobacco simultaneously. Notwithstanding our diminished capacity, we stay abreast of virus and economic updates, which constitute 99.9% of the news, even with coverage of the Obamagate story the liberal media are trying to suppress.

Actually, Trump wants us to focus on the virus and on out-of-work Americans because he is determined to prudently reopen the economy precisely to help the same people these journos claim he is ignoring. If Trump were trying to shift our attention from the economy or the virus, why would he publicly disagree with Dr. Anthony Fauci on the reopening of schools in the fall? Moreover, it is inconceivable that he could avoid virus-related issues during the campaign even if he tried. The media’s diversion claim is patently absurd.

Politico‘s Jack Shafer is promoting the bizarre theory that Trump is pushing Obamagate and other “outrageous claims” because he wants the spotlight on himself, even if only for critical coverage: “Making him the subject of our conversations is almost as good to Trump as making him the video camera’s focal point. … Obviously, he’d like it better if the commentariat praised him, but if they’re going to criticize him, he’s content to annotate the insults and censures and repurpose them as offensive weapons. … Baseless charges like these (Obamagate, China, Joe Scarborough, QAnon) are the perfect refuge of a rhetorical arsonist like Trump, who scorches the earth with controversy and confusion so nobody knows where to find the truth.”

Sorry, Mr. Schafer, but Trump truly believes he was set up with the Russia hoax, and the evidence supports him. That’s why he’s ranting about it even while COVID-19 is still with us. No matter how much you mock it, no matter how much you want the country to focus solely on the virus, life has to go on, and other issues, especially Obamagate, still matter.

There must be a reckoning for the political party that abused governmental power to engineer a coup against the other party. In a saner world, Democrats would agree with this, as it was the premise upon which the bogus Russia-Trump investigation was based. Progressives pounded the table for three years over Trump’s alleged theft of the election, and they now expect us to shuffle docilely into the night when we have his opponents dead to rights doing the very thing they accused him of doing?

So, no, gentlemen, you are hopelessly off base. Trump intends to keep the coronavirus-related issues on the front burner. They must be if he is to lead America back to health and wealth. Unlike the left, he is not ignoring the economic devastation caused by this virus. Unlike the left, he is taking action instead of engaging in “rhetorical arson,” if I may humbly borrow Schafer’s incendiary term.

The left can smear Trump from their basements for not waving his wand and immediately accelerating our COVID-19 testing capacity to a billion per month and for the economic devastation caused by shutting down the economy. But they show unprecedented audacity blaming him for a death count that would have been worse and for an economic shutdown that would go on indefinitely if they were in charge.

Unhappily for the media, President Trump is alert, engaged, and proactively addressing a comprehensive range of issues affecting Americans. He is fully capable of calling attention to this Democratic corruption of shocking magnitude without impeding his efforts to make America well and prosperous again.

https://pjmedia.com/columns/david-limbaugh/2020/05/15/no-obamagate-is-not-a-trump-diversion-n392663
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The Constitution Requires Judge Emmet Sullivan’s Lawless Amicus Order Against Michael Flynn Be Overturned


The U.S. Constitution makes clear that the judiciary has no business second-guessing prosecutorial decisions. That’s what Michael Flynn judge Emmet Sullivan decided to do.


On May 13, Judge Emmet Sullivan issued a blatantly biased and unconstitutional order in the long-lasting Michael Flynn criminal case. To preserve the rule of law and our constitutional separation of powers, the Department of Justice has no choice now but to seek a writ of mandamus from the D.C. Circuit Court ordering the criminal charge against Flynn dismissed and reassigning the case to another judge.

On Tuesday, Judge Sullivan shocked court watchers when he entered an order stating that, “at the appropriate time,” he intended to enter a scheduling order permitting “amicus curiae” or friend of the court briefs to be filed in Flynn case. Flynn, who more than a year ago pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI, was seeking to withdraw his guilty plea when the Department of Justice filed a motion to dismiss the criminal charge against Flynn.

The government’s motion to dismiss highlighted new evidence uncovered by an outside U.S. attorney, Jeff Jensen, and detailed the government’s position that even if Flynn had made false statements to FBI agents about his conversations with the Russian ambassador, as a matter of law there was no crime because the false statements were not “material” to a legitimate investigation.

Another Jaw-Dropping Order

Soon after Judge Sullivan announced he would accept amicus briefs, a group of lawyers operating under the moniker Watergate Prosecutors filed a notice of its intent to file an amicus brief. That a group of left-leaning lawyers intended to relitigate Obamagate via the Flynn case wasn’t surprising. What was surprising—no, unbelievable—is what Judge Sullivan did on Wednesday: He entered an order “appoint[ing] The Honorable John Gleeson (Ret.) as amicus curiae to present arguments in opposition to the government’s Motion to Dismiss.”

This order was jaw-dropping for two reasons. First, the U.S. Constitution makes clear that the judiciary has no business second-guessing prosecutorial decisions. In fact, the very case Judge Sullivan cited for the proposition that he had the inherent authority to appoint an amicus curiae—United States v. Fokker—made clear Sullivan’s order was lawless.


In that case, the government had criminally charged Fokker Services with violations of export control laws. The government and defendant entered a deferred prosecution agreement, under which the government would dismiss the charges in exchange for Fokker Services agreeing to several compliance provisions. But when the parties went before a federal district court judge to formalize the arrangement and a waiver of the Speedy Trial Act, the presiding judge refused to accept the waiver—which in essence doomed the agreement—because he believed the agreement was too lenient on the business owners.

The government filed a “writ of mandamus” with the D.C. Circuit Court. A writ of mandamus is a procedural machination that allows a party to seek to force a lower court to act as required by law. The Fokker court explained that while mandamus is an extraordinary remedy, it is appropriate where the petitioner: (i) has “no other adequate means to attain the relief he desires”; (ii) “show[s] that his right to the writ is ‘clear and indisputable’”; and then “(iii) the court ‘in the exercise of its discretion, must be satisfied that the writ is appropriate under the circumstances.’”

‘The Executive’s Primacy Is Long Settled’

In analyzing the propriety of the district court’s refusal to approve the agreement, the appellate court summarized controlling principles of constitutional law: “The Executive’s primacy in criminal charging decisions is long settled. That authority stems from the Constitution’s delegation of ‘take Care’ duties, U.S. Const. art. II, § 3, and the pardon power, id. § 2, to the Executive Branch. Decisions to initiate charges, or to dismiss charges once brought, ‘lie[] at the core of the Executive’s duty to see to the faithful execution of the laws.’”

Indeed, “[f]ew subjects are less adapted to judicial review than the exercise by the Executive of his discretion in deciding when and whether to institute criminal proceedings, or what precise charge shall be made, or whether to dismiss a proceeding once brought.’”

“Those settled principles,” the court explained “counsel against interpreting statutes and rules in a manner that would impinge on the Executive’s constitutionally rooted primacy over criminal charging decisions.” The Fokker court then specifically addressed Rule 48(a) that “requires a prosecutor to obtain ‘leave of court’ before dismissing charges against a criminal defendant.”

The court explained that “that language could conceivably be read to allow for considerable judicial involvement in the determination to dismiss criminal charges.” However, and significantly, the court then stressed that “decisions to dismiss pending criminal charges—no less than decisions to initiate charges and to identify which charges to bring—lie squarely within the ken of prosecutorial discretion.”

The “leave of court” requirement, the court stressed, “has been understood to be a narrow one—’to protect a defendant against prosecutorial harassment . . . when the [g]overnment moves to dismiss an indictment over the defendant’s objection.’” Such review in that case is to guard against “a scheme of ‘prosecutorial harassment’ of the defendant through repeated efforts to bring—and then dismiss—charges.”

 Fokker then concluded: “So understood, the ‘leave of court’ authority gives no power to a district court to deny a prosecutor’s Rule 48(a) motion to dismiss charges based on a disagreement with the prosecution’s exercise of charging authority. For instance, a court cannot deny leave of court because of a view that the defendant should stand trial notwithstanding the prosecution’s desire to dismiss the charges, or a view that any remaining charges fail adequately to redress the gravity of the defendant’s alleged conduct. The authority to make such determinations remains with the Executive.”

This Is Mandatory Precedent

The Fokker decision was a 2016 decision from the D.C. Circuit Court and, as such, establishes “mandatory precedent,” i.e., precedent that must be followed, by all D.C. district court judges—including Judge Sullivan. Thus, Judge Sullivan’s directive that Judge Gleeson, as amicus curiae, should “present arguments in opposition to the government’s Motion to Dismiss,” cannot stand: It conflicts with controlling circuit court precedent, and more significantly with the U.S. Constitution.

While Judge Sullivan has not yet ruled on the government’s Motion to Dismiss, his mere attempt to usurp the executive branch’s authority must be addressed, and now. The government should, as it did in Fokker, seek a writ of mandamus from the D.C. Circuit, directing the charge against Flynn be dismissed.

The government should also seek reassignment of the case on remand, meaning that when the case returns to the lower court for dismissal of the charge, it goes to a different judge. While “reassignment is warranted only in the ‘exceedingly rare circumstance,’” such as where a judge’s conduct is “so extreme as to display clear inability to render fair judgment,” Judge Sullivan’s selection of Judge Gleeson as his “friend of the court” reveals Judge Sullivan’s irretractable bias.

The same day Judge Sullivan named Judge Gleeson to serve in the amicus curiae role, the Washington Post ran an op-ed co-authored by Gleeson, entitled, “The Flynn case isn’t over until the judge says it’s over.” “The Justice Department’s move to dismiss the prosecution of former national security adviser Michael Flynn does not need to be the end of the case—and it shouldn’t be,” he opened. Then, after misrepresenting the Rule 48(b)’s “leave of court” requirement, Gleeson suggests dismissal of the Flynn case would be inappropriate because “the record reeks of improper political influence.”

No, what reeks is Judge Sullivan’s selection of a clearly biased “friend of the court” who appears to have already pre-judged the prosecutor’s motive and found it improper. Judge Sullivan surely knew of Gleeson’s bent and just as surely shares it.

There were several earlier glimpses of Judge Sullivan’s bias, such as when he implied Flynn had committed treason and when he shrugged at the FBI losing the original 302 interview notes. But with his appointment of Judge Gleeson, Judge Sullivan has so far crossed the threshold of fairness, the case should be stripped from his courtroom.

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Staff Sgt. Ron Shurer, Medal of Honor recipient who saved lives in Afghanistan, dead at 41 after cancer battle

Former Army Staff Sgt. Ronald J. Shurer II, who received the Medal of Honor from President Trump in 2018 for his actions under enemy fire in Afghanistan a decade earlier, has died. He was 41.
He had been battling lung cancer for years, and his most recent social media posts indicated his condition was worsening.
Sources close to the family told Fox News that he lost his fight Thursday morning, days after he was placed on a ventilator.
 The Alaska native deployed to Afghanistan as an Army medic and later served in the White House as a Secret Service officer.

Shurer, a former Green Beret, was part of the Special Operations Task Force-33 during operation Enduring Freedom in 2008.
On April 6 of that year, about 200 enemy combatants attacked his unit in the Shok Valley with machine gun, sniper and rocket-propelled grenade fire, according to the White House.
Shurer was the only medic on the mission, which consisted of several dozen American Special Forces soldiers and 100 Afghan commandos, President Trump said during the Medal of Honor ceremony.
The lead portion of Shurer’s team sustained multiple casualties in the attack and found itself pinned against the mountainside. He treated injured soldiers along the way as he fought toward the front, where he stabilized four more soldiers -- then carried them himself to the base of the mountain, using his body as a shield, and loaded them onto a helicopter for evacuation.
“There’s nothing they wouldn’t have done for me,” he said of his team on “Fox & Friends” in 2018. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t have done for them.”

"For more than six hours, Ron bravely faced down the enemy," President Trump said. "Not a single American died in that brutal battle thanks in great measure to Ron's heroic actions."
Shurer was already a year into his cancer battle when he received the military’s highest honor, something the president noted during the ceremony.
“He’s braved, battled, worked, he’s done everything he can, that cancer -- he’s been fighting it every single day with courage and with strength, and he’s a warrior," Trump said. "He's the best dad and role model two boys could ever ask for.

Shurer enlisted in the United States Army on Sept. 18, 2002 -- his second try after initially being denied for a medical condition.
“After seeing Sept. 11, and just seeing the war start to begin in Afghanistan, it just didn’t feel right to stay on the sidelines and not go out and try and play some small part in protecting America,” he said in the “Fox & Friends” interview.
He was promoted to staff sergeant on Dec. 1, 2006, and served with the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force in Afghanistan from November 2007 to May 2008.

He received an honorable discharge in 2009 and joined the Secret Service a few months later, initially working in the Phoenix Field Office.
He is survived by his wife, Miranda, and two children.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/medal-of-honor-recipient-afghanistan-has-died-41-cancer
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CDC Failures: Mission Sprawl


CDC Failures: 

Mission Sprawl Is One Problem

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that it “has a unique mission—to save lives by deploying effective, proven strategies to prevent, detect, and rapidly respond to disease outbreaks at their source.”

But the CDC was slow to recognize the size of the COVID-19 threat and it fumbled the ball in numerous ways. CDC Director Robert Redfield tweeted January 14 that “there is no confirmed person‐​to‐​person spread” of the illness, and on January 28 he emailed CDC colleagues that “the virus is not spreading in the U.S. at this time.”

A ProPublica analysis found, “Internal Emails Show How Chaos at the CDC Slowed the Early Response to Coronavirus.” The analysis concluded that “the CDC underestimated the threat from the virus and stumbled in communicating to local public health officials what should be done.” Meanwhile, an NPR investigation found that the CDC’s initiative to create an early warning system in selected cities was a flop.

This CDC brochure lauds the agency’s success at battling COVID-19. It says, “An important part of CDC’s role during a public health emergency is to develop a test and equip state and local public health labs with testing capacity.” The brochure does not mention that the CDC’s test failed and that federal actions delayed the deployment of private‐​sector tests.

The CDC and other federal health agencies told the public not to wear masks. The official line was: “CDC does not recommend that people who are well wear a facemask to protect themselves from respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19.” The U.S. Surgeon General was insistent about masks: “They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus.”

Why should we spend billions of dollars on health agencies that give us harmful advice?

Some pundits claim that budget cuts were the problem, but the table below suggests otherwise. The CDC workforce increased 12 percent between 2010 and 2019, based on data in CDC budget submissions here and here.

The largest employment increase was in “Global Health,” a group that monitors foreign outbreaks of infectious disease. The group’s employment jumped from 272 in 2010 to 1,263 in 2019. The CDC says the group “supports global efforts to detect epidemic threats earlier, respond more effectively, and prevent avoidable catastrophes.” The agency should have been ready.

CDC leaders may have been distracted because of mission‐​sprawl. The CDC’s 512‐​page budget submission for 2021 reveals a vast and disparate array of activities. What are occupational safety and injury prevention doing in the government’s infectious disease agency?

The CDC highlights its recent accomplishments on pages 18 to 23. How is CDC Director Redfield supposed to remain alert to emerging epidemics when he is also supposed to manage programs on tiny teeth, colon cancer, opioids, child abuse, diabetes, workers’ compensation, lead‐​based paints, mold in buildings, and lifting heavy objects on construction sites?

From the highlights:
“In 2019, CDC launched the Protect Tiny Teeth initiative in collaboration with partners. The initiative includes an oral health toolkit to raise awareness about the importance of oral health as part of prenatal care.”
“As part of the Combatting Opioid Overdose through Community‐​Level Intervention program, CDC expanded efforts to partner with public safety (e.g., law enforcement, first responders) by collaborating with the Office of National Drug Control Policy to fund 25 pilot projects.”
“Using CDC resources, the Forest County Potawatomi Community, a tribal nation in Wisconsin created a media campaign, in collaboration with the Tribe’s Executive Council, targeting the stigma associated with opioid use disorder within the Native American culture.”
“CDC’s Essential for Childhood program recipient states increased the percentage of Community‐​Based Child Abuse Prevention dollars invested in evidence‐​based programs from 24% to 52%.“
“CDC’s Colorectal Cancer Control Program grantees have partnered with over 760 health system clinics that serve over 1.2 million patients age‐​eligible for colorectal cancer screening.”
“As of December 2019, more than 1,500 organizations have received CDC‐​recognition for delivering CDC’s National Diabetes Prevention Program lifestyle change program…”
“CDC Project 3–3: Children with Asthma is working to identify factors associated with asthma exacerbation in children following the 2017 Hurricanes Harvey and Maria and aims to establish or improve programs to reduce asthma burden among children during and after hurricanes.”
“CDC published a web‐​based data visualization dashboard to explore 1.4 million workers’ compensation claims in Ohio, creating a causation‐​specific injury surveillance system using existing claims databases.”
“CDC’s Data Linkage Program facilitated evidence building which supported policy decisions for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD’s 2018–2022 Strategic Plan cited findings from the NCHS-HUD linked data files to support the continued removal of lead‐​based paint hazards in HUD homes.”
“Using CDC resources, the CPWR‐​Center for Construction Research and Training, piloted and launched best​built​plans​.org to provide contractors and workers with practical tools, microgames, and information to prevent injuries from lifting and moving heavy materials while staying productive and profitable.”
“In 2019, the Coal Worker’s Health Surveillance Program provided 8,398 chest x‐​ray screening examinations and reviewed 2,758 spirometry test results from its mobile unit and 40 Spirometry Clinics in 11 states.”
“CDC released the Dampness and Mold Assessment Tool for both general buildings and schools to help employers identify and assess areas of dampness in buildings.”
In coming months, Congress should reassess the CDC’s budget and consider some of the agency’s failures during the COVID-19 crisis. Policymakers may want to take a pruning knife to the CDC and refocus it on the core mission of infectious disease and epidemics.

In general, less is more with federal agencies. Federal mission‐​sprawl often results in overlaps with state, local, and private activities, and it distracts federal leaders from their core responsibilities.



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Ben Rhodes -vs- Susan Rice....


We Didn’t Know About The FBI Flynn Investigation That Obama Instructed The FBI to Conduct “By The Book”

It’s always worthwhile to revisit past assertions and denials when presented with new evidence.  Consider this…

During an interview on April 26, 2019, former Deputy National Security Advisor to President Obama, Ben Rhodes, told a journalist the Obama White House didn’t even know there was an FBI investigation into President-elect Trump or Michael Flynn.  WATCH:


If the White House didn’t know about an FBI investigation into Michael Flynn (per Ben Rhodes), then how does President Obama tell the FBI to conduct their investigation “by the book” according to Ben Rhodes boss, National Security Advisor Susan Rice.  See the problem?


Not coincidentally, on the same date of this pull-aside meeting between President Obama, James Comey, Sally Yates, Vice-President Biden and Susan Rice (January 5, 2017), likely just prior to the meeting….  President Obama’s chief of staff Denis McDonough had  requested Michael Flynn’s name be unmasked from NSA captures of Russian Ambassador Kislyak surveillance:


Deputy AG Sally Yates testified she didn’t know anything about an intercepted call between Kislyak and Flynn until President Obama told her about it.

… Now Remember Ben, it’s important the FBI conduct the investigation we don’t know about ‘by the book’…


Now we see why that paragraph in the Susan Rice memo is likely redacted.  The paragraph itself is almost certain to contain details about the discussion surrounding incoming Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

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Over 100 inmates rearrested in n.y. following COVID-19 release

OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 10:36 AM PT — Friday, May 15, 2020
Over 100 inmates released from Rikers Island in New York City are seeing their second run-in with the law. According to the New York Post, about 110 previously incarcerated individuals have accounted for 190 re-arrests.
The inmates were released from the jail complex back in March as a potential mitigation measure, which was a move put in place by the city Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Data from the New York City Police Department shows a quarter of those arrests were seen in burglaries, which has contributed to an increase of break-ins over the last month. A majority of those break-ins occurred in restaurants and other businesses that have closed as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
Authorities believe the number of re-offenders may be much higher than recorded as more inmates have been released since de Blasio’s announcement.
An estimated 300 of the 1,500 inmates selected from Rikers Island were immediately released if they had less than one-year left to serve. The remaining inmates were either 70-years or older, or had pre-existing conditions that placed them at high risk of contracting the virus.
Other facility’s across the nation have also followed suit with more than 16,000 inmates being released in the U.S. due to concerns of coronavirus.
Just last month, more than 150 inmates and 114 correction officers at Rikers Island tested positive for COVID-19.
https://www.oann.com/over-100-inmates-rearrested-in-n-y-following-covid-19-release/
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The Ruling Class Railroading of...


The Ruling Class Railroading 

of Michael Flynn

The release of the names of Obama officials who sought the unmasking of Michael Flynn is longer than expected. It seems to include everyone but the White House custodian. Naturally, the media is treating this revelation as perfectly normal. You see, one party spying on the other is only shocking if Republicans do it. But if Democrats do it? Well, the Obama officials who wanted a peek at Flynn’s conversations were simply “doing their duty.” Right. That’s why they had been spying on him since at least 2014. Recall that the Cambridge academic Stefan Halper, the “confidential informant” the FBI used to try and trip up George Papadopoulos, had been spying on Michael Flynn too. Halper reported on a visit Flynn made to Cambridge as far back as 2014.

Flynn had become a reviled figure in the eyes of Obama officials by daring to question its soft approach to Islamic terrorism. Ever since Obama sacked Flynn as the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Obama officials had been gunning for him. They feverishly worked up a hypothesis that he was in cahoots with the Russians and couldn’t resist an attempt to prove their partisan hunch by spying on him relentlessly.

It is impossible to overstate the intensity of the Trump Derangement Syndrome that gripped Obama and his aidesperfectpullquote]


Such was their desperation to nail Flynn that Sally Yates and company faked up a concern about the possibility of Flynn having violated the Logan Act, an antiquated law that has never been enforced. We now know that even Joe Biden wanted to get his finger into that pie. This is the same Joe Biden who has said that the Obama administration wasn’t guilty of even a “hint of scandal.”

The I’m-not-guilty note Susan Rice wrote to herself on inauguration day takes on more meaning in light of the extensive unmaskings. Why did she wait until the last moment to write that note? Was she waiting to see what would happen with all the frenetic spying on Flynn? Obama told us everything had to be done “by the book,” she wrote to herself — a Freudian aside indicating her fears about the eventual exposure of how not by the book their spying on an incoming administration would appear.

The railroading of Michael Flynn is inconceivable without the double standards the ruling class applies to Democrats. Just imagine the endless furor that would have erupted had the George W. Bush administration unmasked incoming Obama officials on some half-baked hunch that they were conferring with enemies of the United States. Imagine the outrage if it further came out that, say, Eric Holder, had been the target of spying for years.

Obama pompously calls all of this the “rule of law.” It is nakedly the rule of men, weaponizing America’s intelligence agencies against political adversaries. Let’s hope that John Durham, the prosecutor whom Bill Barr has assigned to get to the bottom of Obamagate, will pull on the Flynn string and unravel the whole story of the political espionage. When exactly did it start? Did the “interagency taskforce” CIA Director John Brennan assembled long before the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane began discuss how to nail Flynn? Remember that group ranged across agencies. Does that account for why so many people in the Obama administration, including Treasury officials, wanted to unmask Flynn during the transition?

The unmaskings raise more questions than they answer. But this much is clear: Obama presided over the very autocracy he claims to fear from Trump — the autocracy in his case of an entrenched liberal ruling class that fearing its lost privileges pulled out all the stops to sabotage a president it deemed “illegitimate.” They convinced themselves that since he represented an affront to “norms” they could play dirty and betray norms themselves.

It is impossible to overstate the intensity of the Trump Derangement Syndrome that gripped Obama and his aides — a hatred that led to an extraordinary level of entitlement. Out of nothing more than political spite, they were determined to use the transition to get a political adversary fired and prosecuted.

Their gross presumption rested entirely upon the undemocratic conceits of an elite that fools itself into thinking that the “rule of law” is synonymous with its will and appetite for power. The media exists to make the railroadings of the ruling class look respectable, but in truth they are no different than those of third-world autocrats. Sober historians will look back at the political espionage of the Obama administration against the incoming Trump administration as the stuff of banana republics.



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Ransomware Gang Demands $42M or it Releases Trump’s ‘Dirty Laundry’





Ransomware Gang Demands $42M or it Releases Trump’s ‘Dirty Laundry’




By Turner Wright


The ransomware gang that stole almost 1TB of legal secrets from the biggest names in the entertainment industry is now demanding $42 million in cryptocurrency or else it will expose U.S. President Donald Trump’s “dirty laundry”.

The gang has already released a 2GB trove of legal documents marked ‘Lady Gaga’ and fired the link media outlets including Cointelegraph, which broke the news about the attack last week on New York law firm, Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks.

The law firm has clients including Elton John, Robert DeNiro, and Madonna. The gang hacked and encrypted the firm’s server, stealing 756GB of data on confidential contracts, telephone numbers, email addresses, personal correspondence, non-disclosure agreements, and more. The company has so far refused to pay up.

Doubling down

The REvil ransomware group —also known as Sodinokibi — posted a new message on May 14, that said they were doubling their original ransom and using dirt on Trump as leverage: “The next person we’ll be publishing is Donald Trump. There’s an election going on, and we found a ton of dirty laundry on time.”

Addressing Trump directly, REvil recommended he “poke a sharp stick at the guys” (referring to the law firm) within a week if he wanted to remain president. And to the voters: “...we can let you know that after such a publication, you certainly [won’t] want to see him as president.”

The attackers have threatened to release the stolen data in nine staged releases unless their demands for a ransom are met by the firm. The ransomware gang prefers to be paid in Monero, but also accepts Bitcoin for a higher fee.

It’s unclear what link Trump has to the firm, as he’s not believed to have ever been a client.

Response from law firm

According to The New York Post, Grubman is refusing to negotiate with the hackers, despite their threats to “destroy [the law firm] down to the ground if [they] don’t see the money.” He believes the hackers may release the documents even if he does pay, and the FBI considers the hack an act of terrorism. The US famously does not negotiate with terrorists.

Brett Callow from information security firm Emsisoft described the ransom as “one of the largest demands ever heard” and echoed Grubman’s sentiment:

“Companies in this situation have no good options available... Even if they pay the ransom demand, there is no guarantee the criminals will destroy the stolen data if it has a high market value. The data may still be sold or traded... In these cases, it’s possible that the criminals will attempt to extort money directly from the people whose information was exposed.”


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How A String Of Deceptively Edited Videos Highlight The Media’s Misinformation Problem


If you care about accuracy, you should care that millions of people were misinformed by major networks last week.


Over the course of four days last week, three major networks each ran separate, deceptively edited videos of Trump administration officials. The spurt of misinformation came courtesy of ABC, CBS, and NBC, collectively misleading millions of viewers.

ABC

On Thursday, Jimmy Kimmel told viewers Mike Pence was caught on a hot mic asking to carry empty boxes of PPE for a publicity stunt, and aired a video edited to support the statement. Pence, as it turned out, was clearly joking. Kimmel apologized this week, claiming he hadn’t watched the full clip, but still took a swipe at Pence’s office for bothering to request the retraction in the middle of a pandemic.

But it was Kimmel and his network, of course, who advanced embarrassing misinformation about the VP to their two million viewers. On social media, Kimmel’s clip duped high-profile journalists into spreading his false claim about Pence as well, ensuring it misinformed many others beyond ABC’s late-night comedy audience.


NBC

On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Chuck Todd used a shortened clip of Attorney General William Barr to claim he “didn’t make the case that he was upholding the rule of law” in response to a question from CBS about Michael Flynn. Asked how history would view the Justice Department’s decision to drop its case against Flynn, Barr replied, “Well, history is written by the winners, so it largely depends who’s winning the history. But I think a fair history would say that it was a good decision because it upheld the rule of law.”

Todd aired Barr saying, “Well, history is written by the winners, so it largely depends who’s winning the history,” and then claimed he “didn’t make the case that he was upholding the rule of law,” when that was literally the case Barr made in the next sentence. In an apology issued after the DOJ called NBC out, Todd claimed he hadn’t seen Barr’s full answer, which is either a dishonest or lazy given that CBS published a transcript of the interview days before “Meet the Press” aired.


CBS

Later on Sunday, “60 Minutes” reported that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had “attempted to resurrect a debunked theory that the virus was man-made in China” during an interview with ABC. The show aired chopped up footage of Pompeo’s answer that misrepresented the full context. Reporting that Pompeo “attempted to resurrect” the theory implies he made some significant effort to advance that argument when, in reality, the statement was made in a brief two-sentence response to a question from Martha Raddatz.

Further, “60 Minutes” cut out most of Pompeo’s subsequent answers to Raddatz, in which the secretary repeatedly said he also agreed with the DNI consensus that the virus was not manmade or genetically modified. Here’s the full exchange:

Pompeo: That’s right, I agree with that. Yes. I’ve seen their analysis. I’ve seen the summary that you saw that was released publicly. I have no reason to doubt that that is accurate at this point.
Raddatz: OK, so just to be clear, you do not think it was manmade or genetically modified?
Pompeo: I’ve seen what the intelligence community has said. I have no reason to believe that they’ve got it wrong.

CBS only aired, “That’s right, I agree with that.” The rest of his replies add important context to the discussion, showing Pompeo’s repeated, direct acceptance of the summary. While his answer was confusing, that doesn’t excuse a misleading report.

Most egregious was a tweet published by “60 Minutes” that simply cut off Pompeo’s acceptance of the DNI assessment. That’s wildly misleading.



Nobody in media would claim the industry is 100 percent accurate. Errors are inevitable. Both Kimmel and Todd claim they did not see the full clips their show’s edited deceptively, which is either evidence of extremely irresponsible standards (standards they wouldn’t apply to Democrats) or complete dishonesty. Over at CBS, “60 Minutes” ran with the least charitable interpretation of Pompeo’s statements and used chopped up footage to support it.

This is not a string of errors committed by liberal blogs. They all aired on major networks and their social media properties. They also all targeted Republicans. That is not a coincidence, it’s evidence of the same systemic bias that helped President Trump find an audience five years ago.

The corporate media’s sanctimonious defenders have something right: a credible press is essential. A credible president is important as well. Both institutions have given people some reason to distrust them during this pandemic, when trustworthy, accurate information should be easy to access and identify.

Trump’s political career has always been a reaction to the media’s undeniable bias against conservatives. His attacks have their excesses, but the problem is very real, very serious, and long predates his presidency. Rather than seriously reckon with that problem, the press continually insists on proving Trump right, furthering the credibility issues that helped launch his rise in the first place.

If you care about accuracy, you should care that millions of people were misinformed by major networks last week. If you believe their errors are hardly worth our time in the midst of a pandemic, you may also believe that proliferating conspiracy theories, apathy, and crumbling faith in institutions are all hampering our response to the virus, and damaging the country. Consider that media malpractice plays a major role in driving people there. Consider also that it can be mitigated, but only with some self-reflection and the will to do better.

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Nick Searcy: The World Is Ruined and All the Left’s Dreams Have Come True

 Nick Searcy: The World Is Ruined and All the Left's Dreams Have Come True
Article by Nick Searcy in "RedState":

The other day when it was really hot, our neighbors were socially distancing in our swimming pool, and I needed to make a perilous virus-dodging run to the bombed-out battlefield we in what used to be America used to call “the grocery store.” 

As a proper wrestling fan, I of course possess a luche libre wrestling mask, and so as a joke, I put it on, and announced to the swimmers that I was going in search of dinner and toilet paper.

Laughter ensued.  One of them pointed out that my nose and mouth was not sufficiently covered by the Mask of Mil Mascaras, so I even put on a #FaceDiaper (as my golf buddy A.B. calls them).    They squealed with delight, screaming “I DARE YOU.” (Yes, “squealed.” You’d have to know my neighbors.)

So, having been dared, I had to do it.  I thought, “This will be hilarious. I really should film this. People are going to laugh and laugh…”


I did a whole grocery run, about 20 minutes — and nobody laughed.  Not on the way into the store, not while I was shopping, nothing.  I got NO ATTENTION whatsoever (and as an international film and television star, this is always VERY upsetting). Nobody thought it was funny, or scary, or weird, or ANYTHING.  Nobody noticed. Even the cashier smiled and asked me if I was having a nice day.

Two months ago, she would have called the police.

We have all lost our damn minds.  To quote the probably Chinese-financed film “Zoolander”, I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.

The Left has finally managed to literally ruin the entire world.  They’ve destroyed everything — the NBA, the NCAA, college itself, high school, bars, restaurants, golf courses, retail sales, small businesses, bowling alleys, concerts, driving ranges, kids’ soccer, pickup games at the Y, or in fact anything that you used to do for fun — and they never want it to end. The two parties that make up the Left in America, the Democrat Party and the Chinese Communist Party, have, at long last, openly joined forces to punish Americans for the crime of not wanting totalitarian one-party rule like we have in oppressive places like China, North Korea, and California.

They will never let the old America come back if they can help it.   They want it dead and gone, and always have.  And in the Chinese Virus, or COVID19 or the Moo Shu Achoo or Lung Pao Sicken or whatever “racist” name you want to give it, they have stumbled upon the perfect weapon — because it can never be solved.

You may have it and not have any symptoms — but you may spread this thing with no symptoms to someone else who also may not have symptoms, so you have to stay home.  But if someone else gets it and has symptoms, then you are a murderer, so you have to stay home.  In order for you to be sure you don’t have it, YOU HAVE TO BE TESTED — but then, even if you test negative for the virus, YOU MIGHT GET IT 30 SECONDS AFTER THE TEST, so you have to stay home.  And we can’t ever go back to normal until every single human being in America is tested — but even then, we can’t be sure, so you have to stay home.

Are you getting this?  There is no scenario under which you can be absolutely sure, so you have to stay home — and if you try to open your business because the government subsistence check these newly energized Communists are breathlessly sending you isn’t enough for your selfish ass, you need to be put in jail, where we have plenty of room, since we let all the actual criminals out because they might get the virus that is making you stay at home.   So the homeless, the rapists, and the violent criminals need to be let out on the streets to keep them safe — But You. Have. To. Stay. Home.

I’m convinced that the fact that none of the new rules make a damn bit of sense is part of their strategy.  You can walk around inside a grocery store with a wrestling mask on, but you can’t play golf in the fresh air? You can go in a liquor store, but not a clothing store? You can go to Walmart and buy a video game or a television, but you can’t get your hair done? The damned stupidity of the rules actually force you NOT to think for yourself but simply OBEY, or be punished! “Never mind that the rules don’t make sense, you selfish capitalist bastard!  DO YOU WANT TO KILL GRANDMA? Just wait till we let this rapist out of jail, and you can have his cell!”

And where the CCP and the Democrat Party have taken absolute power, they are literally killing Grandma. Andrew Cuomo, the Left’s favorite fantasy replacement candidate for their ridiculous nominee Chauncey the Fingerer, forced patients diagnosed with Winnie the Flu back into rest homes in New York causing hundreds if not thousands of deaths among the elderly that might have been postponed (not prevented, since we are all going to die someday).

The same thing happened in Pennsylvania, where the devastatingly attractive Pennsylvania Health Secretary forced COVID-positive patients into nursing homes while moving her own mother OUT to protect her, therefore knowingly endangering and killing countless grandmas while saving her own.

And now in CA, the only two relevant political parties (again, I am talking about the Democrats and the CCP) have decreed that the lockdown must last another three months.  Never mind the statistics that say the virus has a survival rate of around 99%. You have to understand that this isn’t about saving Grandma, as Cuomo and the glamorous PA Health Secretary demonstrate. This isn’t about public health, or safety, or medicine.  Like everything else the CCP and the Democrats do or say, this is about — you guessed it — Trump.

They are trying to destroy the economy, and wipe out the middle class, because they think it will hurt Trump.  The Russian collusion lie did not work.  The Ukrainian lie did not work (while #ObamaGate is revealing that the Democrats were projecting AGAIN. The Left always accuses their opponents of what they they are doing themselves).  None of the “insurance policies” that Strozk and Page claimed they had set up have worked. 

But this COVID nonsense is working, and probably precisely because it doesn’t make sense.  Cuomo in New York even admitted that 60% of the newly diagnosed patients were people who were “sheltering at home.” Los Angeles has decreed that you MUST wear a mask whenever you are outside, forcing everyone to deplete their own immune systems rather than building natural immunities by getting some “fresh air,” as our Grandmas used to recommend before America’s Cuomos started deliberately wiping them out.

“Never mind that it doesn’t make sense, you silly MAGA-hat wearing racists!  OBEY THE EXPERTS or be punished by the glorious and all-knowing State!”

The Left will never voluntarily give this power they have back.  Our only chance is through civil disobedience.  We will see, over the next few weeks, if there are enough of us left to bring America back to full normal.  But don’t expect any help from the blue states that are dominated by the DNC and the CCP.  They have finally utterly smashed the evil capitalist pigs and shut them down completely.  Their long-awaited fevered totalitarian dreams are, at the moment, coming to full fruition.

It is time for us to throw away the useless #facediapers they are deliberately subjugating and humiliating us with, and don our lucha libre masks instead.  We are going to have to get in the ring with these leftist heels sooner or later and wrestle for the fate of the country.

Let’s get ready to rumble.

https://www.redstate.com/nick-searcy/2020/05/15/837613/

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