Eleven GOP members of Congress led by Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) have written a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Attorney John Huber, and FBI Director Christopher Wray – asking them to investigate former FBI Director James Comey, Hillary Clinton and others – including FBI lovebirds Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, for a laundry list of potential crimes surrounding the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Recall that Sessions paired special prosecutor John Huber with DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz – falling short of a second Special Counsel, but empowering Horowitz to fully investigate allegations of FBI FISA abuse with subpoena power and other methods he was formerly unable to utilize.
The GOP letter’s primary focus appears to be James Comey, while the charges for all include obstruction, perjury, corruption, unauthorized removal of classified documents, contributions and donations by foreign nationals and other allegations.
The letter also demands that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein “be recused from any examination of FISA abuse,” and recommends that “neither U.S. Attorney John Huber nor a special counsel (if appointed) should report to Rosenstein.”
[snip]
“Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI personnel connected to the compilation of documents on alleged links between Russia and then-presidential candidate Donald Trump known as the “Steele dossier.”
This section of the letter calls out Comey, McCabe, former acting AG Sally Yates, and former acting Deputy AG Dana Boente regarding the Steele dossier.
“we raise concerns regarding the presentation of false and/or unverified information to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in connection with the former Trump aide Carter Page”
“Former and current DOJ and FBI leadership have confirmed to the Committee that unverified information from the Steele dossier comprised an essential part of the FISA applications related to Carter Page”
“Accordingly we refer to DOJ all DOJ and FBI personnel responsible for signing the Carter Page warrant application that contained unverified and/or false information”
The criminal referrals for the group allegedly responsible for FISA abuse include: obstruction, deprivation of rights under color of law, corruption.
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The utter farce of the Mueller investigation into Trump collusion with Russia demonstrates the most obscene and overwhelming pattern of government deceit and deflection in decades. Enough has been written on this trolling probe to convince sincere and honest people that the protection racket thugs are running a confidence game against the populace and has abandoned any prospect of justice. Still, the fake news gatekeepers that select what is suitable for the apathetic public to hear see or read keeps the fairy tale narrative going to prevent looking into the true crimes committed by the cabal of establishment globalists.
Now why is this not the prime news story across the nation? The significance of the cooperation and coordination among the guardians for the establishment has one consuming object; destroy the Donald Trump Presidency. The organized cover-up strikes deep into the fabric of whatever weak claim can be made that the deep state government can be trusted or maintains any legitimacy.
Proof positive starts and begins with the lack of objectivity when most ‘Democrats Wouldn’t Even Look At FISA Memo’… Even The Intercept, left leaning investigative source, while remaining skeptical about the content within the memorandum, calls for Four Easy Ways to Release The Memo. Because of Republican outrage, Glenn Greenwald and Jon Schwarz offer a method for disclosure.
“This has led to a ferocious outcry on the right to “release the memo” – and presumably thereby prove that the Obama administration conducted unlawful surveillance on the Trump campaign and transition. On Thursday night, Fox News host and stalwart Trump ally Sean Hannity claimed that the memo described “the systematic abuse of power, the weaponizing of those powerful tools of intelligence and the shredding of our Fourth Amendment constitutional rights.”
Given the significance of this issue, it is absolutely true that the memo should be declassified and released to the public — and not just the memo itself.”
Trump can declassify anything he wants.
The House (and Senate) intelligence committees can declassify any material they possess.
The Constitution protects members of Congress from prosecution for “any speech or debate in either House.”
Republicans can leak everything to the news media.
Regretfully, the fourth option does not provide an effective voice for mass exposé because the concealment starts with the “Yellow Journalists”, better described as presstitutes, who work overtime pushing their lies and duplicity.
In order to place the evidence that the Obama/Clinton machine commits serial crimes into context, examine the connection of Uranium One! The Real Reason Manafort Was Arrested, with the concealment noise and babble.
“Put simply, Robert Mueller is the fox guarding the hen-house. With the real scandal – Uranium One – suddenly breaking out into the open, Robert Mueller was forced to act. These spurious charges being made against Paul Manafort are nothing but a diversion.
The real crime here is the Uranium One scandal. Tony Podesta and Hillary Clinton’s other sycophants are in deep kaka!”
“The Justice Department unsealed the indictment only weeks after confirmed receiving multiple referrals for criminal investigations over the past year related to Uranium One and the Clinton Foundation. The U.S. Attorney’s office and the FBI in Little Rock, Arkansas, have recently launched a new investigation into “pay to play” allegations at the Clinton Foundation.
Multiple sources told People’s Pundit Daily (PPD) the probe is building upon the progress and evidence of previous investigations.
Federal agents from Little Rock, where the Clinton Foundation was started, have interviewed at least one witness in the last month, though they are expecting to ramp up activities in the coming weeks. In addition to looking into pay-for-play allegations, the probe is examining potential tax law violations.
The Trump DOJ also cleared a confidential informant — who allegedly made tapes of players speaking about offering bribes to the Clinton Foundation — to testify before Congress on Uranium One. The decision lifted an unprecedented non-disclosure agreement put in place by the Obama Justice Department, allowing him to testify about what he witnessed undercover.
It could also prove damning to Special Counsel Robert Mueller III, who ran the FBI during what numerous experts say appears to be a scheme to cover-up potential crimes resulting from the deal.”
“The DOJ statement notes that Lambert is the “former co-president of a Maryland-based transportation company that provides services for the transportation of nuclear materials to customers in the United States and abroad.” Among important facts not mentioned in the DOJ statement are Lambert-Mikerin-Putin connections to Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, the Clinton Foundation, Robert Mueller, Barack Obama, former Attorney General Eric Holder, and other top Obama administration officials involved in facilitating or covering up the Uranium One treason scandal.”
The ample sources cited in this article shines light into the dark corners of the Clintonista press reporting ban. For this reason and the subterfuge of criminality goes all the way to the White House. “We now know that a silent Coup d’Etat was launched by Obama, Valerie Jarrett, Susan Rice, Ben Rhodes, John Brennan, James Clapper and the senior officials of the FBI. That coup has been unfolding over the last two years. Its target is President Trump.”
The FISA Memo will prove to be indefensible and all the spin, shift to a different topic for the next media cycle or a blanket blackout void in response to the charges, will deepen the distrust in the swamp rats. If the treason of William Jefferson Clinton with his transfer of secret military nuclear technology to Red Communist China in the 1990’s did not demand a firing squad, what are the prospects that the wicked witch will drown in the stew of her own poison?
Blaming Trump for everything is the only cottage industry that the power gentry has to sell through their manic celebrity minions. The entire Obama administrative structure approved the treachery or ignored the payoffs to the Clinton Foundation. Just maybe the linkage between the FISA disclosures and the atomic pile of payoffs might start a chain reaction that nukes the establishment.
As the “Schumer Shutdown“ drags on, Trump should just close the doors on as many federal agencies as possible. Of course, if he followed this path, the impeachment madness back-stabbers would just use this approach as grounds for removal from office.
Compare this stretch of spuriousness to the actual high treason committed by the Clinton clan. It is long overdue for the Department of Justice to act as a responsible accuser. DOJ needs to indict and prosecute these co-conspirators for their crimes that honest juries would convict upon and any honorable jurists would sentence to the full extent of the law.
Focusing upon the culpability correctly for a failed political and crooked system is the duty of every citizen. No more excuses. Follow the news on alternative resources which have become the Real News.
Blocking out the mainstream media from your search response sources is a practical method to use. Avoid the brain drain that perpetuates the lies and deceptive disinformation upon your psyche. Engage the social progressive warriors by refuting the delusions they promote about their Totalitarian Collectivism.
Demand from your Congressional representatives the disbanding of the Mueller witch hunt. The Watergate inquisition was driven by the Washington Post. The Trump fishing expedition is in search of a crime that does not exist. It is long overdue to end this massive concealment of protecting Robert Mueller and his cronies from their own crimes.
President Trump needs to act decisively. Demand the resignation of DOJ career obstructionists, fire those who will not leave and replace AG Sessions if he refuses to gear up for a comprehensive investigation into Hillary and the Clinton Foundation, which includes both Bill and Chelsea. Lastly, the entire Obama junto of perjurers deserves a long and secure holiday at Gitmo.
Shortly after WikiLeaks released emails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) on July 26, 2016, former UK spy Christopher Steele filed a memo with his employer, Fusion GPS, claiming that the DNC “hack” during the 2016 election involved Russian agents “within the Democratic Party structure itself,” The New Yorker reports.
On July 26, 2016, after WikiLeaks disseminated the D.N.C. e-mails, Steele filed yet another memo, this time claiming that the Kremlin was “behind” the hacking, which was part of a Russian cyber war against Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Many of the details seemed far-fetched: Steele’s sources claimed that the digital attack involved agents “within the Democratic Party structure itself,” as well as Russian émigrés in the U.S. and “associated offensive cyber operators.”
The unverified claim was contained within a multitude of memos compiled by Steele on behalf of Fusion GPS, which was conducting opposition research on then-candidate Donald Trump for Hillary Clinton and the DNC.
Of note, the 35-page “Trump-Russia” dossier used in part by the FBI to obtain a FISA warrant on one-time Trump campaign advisor Carter Page was comprised of seventeen of Steele’s memos – including one which alleged that Trump had paid “a number of prostitutes to perform a ‘golden showers’ (urination) show in front of him,” which would defile a bed that Barack and Michelle Obama had slept in during a state visit – an allegation attributed to four individuals’ second-hand reporting.
The shocking claim comes amid recent reports that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is preparing criminal charges against Russian hackers allegedly behind the breaches of both the DNC and John Podesta’s email.
Much like the indictment Mueller filed last month charging a different group of Russians in a social media trolling and illegal-ad-buying scheme, the possible new charges are expected to rely heavily on secret intelligence gathered by the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), several of the officials say. […] Mueller’s consideration of charges accusing Russians in the hacking case has not been reported previously. Sources say he has long had sufficient evidence to make a case, but strategic issues could dictate the timing. Potential charges include violations of statutes on conspiracy, election law as well as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
The sources say the possible new indictment — or more than one, if that’s how Mueller’s office decides to proceed — would delve into the details of, and the people behind, the Russian intelligence operation that used hackers to penetrate computer networks and steal emails of both the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
Meanwhile, as we have been reporting, Mueller has yet to even reach out to Julian Assange of WikiLeaks, or New Zealand entrepreneur Kim Dotcom – who clearly knew of the upcoming email leaks before they were dropped. While Assange has heavily insinuated it was DNC staffer Seth Rich, Dotcom has gone “all in” over the last few months – tweeting that he knows Seth Rich was Wikileaks’ source, Rich used a memory stick, and that Dotcom himself was involved.
Let me assure you, the DNC hack wasn’t even a hack. It was an insider with a memory stick. I know this because I know who did it and why. Special Counsel Mueller is not interested in my evidence. My lawyers wrote to him twice. He never replied. 360 pounds!https://t.co/AGRO0sFx7shttps://t.co/epXtv0t1uN
As Josh Caplan of TGP notes, In Donna Brazile’s book, “Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns that Put Donald Trump in the White House,” the Democrat operative admits the DNC allowed alleged Russian hackers to steal data from the party’s servers. From the Daily Caller:
Donna Brazile says in her new book the Democratic National Committee (DNC) went against professional advice and sat idly for a month while Russians stole data because primaries were still underway in a number of states.
In May, when CrowdStrike recommended that we take down our system and rebuild it, the DNC told them to wait a month, because the state primaries for the presidential election were still underway, and the party and the staff needed to be at their computers to manage these efforts,” Brazile wrote in her new book, “Hacks.”
“For a whole month, CrowdStrike watched Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear operating. Cozy Bear was the hacking force that had been in the DNC system for nearly a year.”
Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear are cybersecurity firms that have reported ties with Russian hackers. Both groups are blamed for the hacks on the DNC in 2016. CrowdStrike is a private U.S. cybersecurity firm that oversaw the protection of the DNC’s servers.
Nothing to see here folks – just Trump’s enemies using Steele’s unverified memos with info from high level Kremlin officials when it benefits them, while ignoring the ones which suggest “insiders” was involved in the DNC hack.
Fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s statement following his dismissal may have incriminated former FBI Director James Comey, according to George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley.
The Trump Administration quietly issued an Executive Order (EO) last Thursday which allows for the freezing of US-housed assets belonging to foreign individuals or entities deemed “serious human rights abusers,” along with government officials andexecutives of foreign corporations (current or former) found to have engaged in corruption – which includes the misappropriation of state assets, the expropriation of private assets for personal gain, and corruption related to government contracts or the extraction of natural resources.
Furthermore, anyone in the United States who aids or participates in said corruption or human rights abuses by foreign parties is subject to frozen assets – along with any U.S. corporation who employs foreigners deemed to have engaged in corruption on behalf of the company.
In fact, anyone in the world who has “materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material or technological support for, or goods or services” to foreigners targeted by the Executive Order is subject to frozen assets.
The EO, based on the 2016 Global Human Rights Accountability Act, immediately added 13 foreign individuals to a list of “Specially Designated Nationals” (SDN) maintained by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) – several of whom have ties to the Clintons, the Clinton Foundation, or Clinton associates (details below). Moreover, the Treasury Department sanctioned an additional 39 people, for a total of 52 under the new order – including the son of Russia’s prosecutor general.
The Order reads:
I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, find that the prevalence and severity of human rights abuse and corruption that have their source, in whole or in substantial part, outside the United States, such as those committed or directed by persons listed in the Annex to this order, have reached such scope and gravity that they threaten the stability of international political and economic systems.
Last Week’s Executive Order could have serious implications for D.C. lobbyists who provide “goods and services” (e.g. lobbying services) to despots, corrupt foreign politicians or foreign organizations engaging in the crimes described in the EO. “Virtually every lobbyist in DC has got to be in a cold sweat over the scope of this EO,” said an attorney consulted in the matter who wishes to remain anonymous.
And because the phrase “person” means “an individual or entity” in the order – any US organization which merely employs a foreigner engaging in the listed offenses is also subject to frozen assets. “Consider, what would happen if Apple, say employed a foreign national who bribed a PRC official for government approvals? How about a hypothetical case of a company like Northrop or Boeing where an employee, or consultant, who is a foreign national bribes a Saudi official to direct government purchases of airplanes and military equipment? At least some or all of their assets could be frozen.”
Now consider that if reports from The Hill are accurate – an FBI mole deep within the Russian uranium industry uncovered evidence that “Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the U.S. designed to benefit former President Bill Clinton’s charitable foundation during the time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton served on a government body that provided a favorable decision to Moscow (the Uranium One approval)” – a deal which would eventually grant the Kremlin control over 20 percent of America’s uranium supply right around the time Bill Clinton also collected $500,000 for a Moscow speech, as detailed by author Peter Schweitzer’s book Clinton Cash and the New York Times in 2015.
“The Russians were compromising American contractors in the nuclear industry with kickbacks and extortion threats, all of which raised legitimate national security concerns. And none of that evidence got aired before the Obama administration made those decisions,” a person who worked on the case told The Hill, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution by U.S. or Russian officials. –The Hill
The same FBI informant claims to have video evidence showing Russian agents with briefcases full of bribe money related to the controversial Uranium One deal:
In a report by Tucker Carlson, a former long-time executive of now-defunct D.C. lobbying firm, The Podesta Group – who has been interviewed extensively by FBI special counsel Robert Mueller, claims that Tony Podesta was “basically part of the Clinton Foundation,” frequently meeting with the charity to discuss the Uranium One deal. Meanwhile, Tony’s DNC operative brother John Podesta reportedly recommended that the Podesta Group hire David Adams – Hillary Clinton’s chief adviser at the State Department, giving them a “direct liaison” between the group’s Russian clients and Hillary Clinton’s State Department.
Hypothetically, if the Uranium One deal is deemed corrupt by the Trump administration, and “Russian nuclear officials” indeed routed millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation, and Tony Podesta lobbied on behalf of the deal for the Clinton Foundation – it stands to reason that this Executive Order could freeze the US-housed assets of quite a few individuals. Of note, assets can be frozen with no prior warning, as trump has declared a national emergency due to the “scope and gravity” of the threat posed by said individuals.
To simplify this complicated legal document a bit, keep in mind:
Section 1. (a)(i-ii) outlines all foreigners the Executive Order applies to:
Note: The above section (iii)(A)(3) means any foreign person engaging in “serious human rights abuses” or listed forms of corruption on behalf of a U.S. entity. Also of note – Attorney General Jeff Sessions rolled back a series of Obama-era curbs on civil-asset forfeiture over the summer, strengthening the federal government’s ability to seize cash and property from Americans without criminal charges. That said, this Executive Order only freezes assets, it does not allow the government to take custody of them.
In regards to the 13 listed individuals targeted by this order – several of whom have ties to the Clintons, the Clinton Foundation or Clinton associates – we find the following:
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Goulnara Islamovna Karimova, 45, daughter of former Uzbekistan leader Islam Karimov, headed a powerful organized crime syndicate that leveraged state actors to expropriate businesses, monopolize markets, solicit bribes, and administer extortion rackets.
In early 2016, Amsterdam-based telecom giant VimpelCom (now VEON) admitted to a conspiracy in which they paid millions in bribes to Karimova for entry into the Uzbek telecom market. In a series of related cases, the U.S. Justice Department has sought the forfeiture of $850 million in bribe money from various bank accounts across Europe. In July, Uzbek officials arrested Karimova for fraud, money laundering, bribery, and embezzlement and a variety of other claims.
In 2009, a WikiLeaks cable notes that Karimova set her sights on Bill Clinton to gain access to then-Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.
Three years later, Karimova co-sponsored a 2012 Clinton Foundation fundraiser in Monaco. Hillary Clinton’s State Department was asked to weigh in onBill Clinton’s contacts with Karimova. Pictured below with Bill Clinton at an AIDS charity event in Cannes, France.
Dan Gertler is an Israeli billionaire mining magnaterevealed by the Paradise Papers to be chief negotiator between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and his primary business partner – mining company Glencore, founded by Marc Rich – who was pardoned for corruption by Bill Clinton on his last day in office after his wife gave $450,000 to the Clinton Library foundation.
In 2001 Gertler gave $20m in cash to DRC President Joseph Kabila to use to buy weapons and fund his war against rebels to consolidate his grip on power. In exchange, Gertler’s company IDI was granted a monopoly on the DRC diamond trade, worth hundreds of millions a year. In 2013, Gertler sold the DRC rights to mine oil for $150 million, a 300x increase on an asset he purchased from President Kabila 7 years prior for just $500,000.
In 2012, Kabila offered Bill Clinton $650k for a speechin the DRC – for which Clinton sought State Department approval – only to have his speaking agency recommend against the appearance which would require photos with the dictator.
Gertler’s family foundation is also linked to John McCain – sharing a seat on the board of directors of “Operation Smile” with Cindy McCain for a period of time.
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Yahya Jammeh is the former President of Gambia who came to power in 1994 and stepped down in 2017. He has a long history of serious human rights abuses and corruption – creating a terror and assassination squad called the Junglers that answered directly to him.
Jammeh was installed as President during a 1994 CIA-led coup in Gambia authorized by the Clinton administration, and in 2014, the Obama administration effectively sidelined an attempted coup. Indeed, Jammeh appears to have been a friend to both the Clinton and the Obama Administrations.
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Angel Rondon Rijo; Dominican Republic – Sanctioned for funneling a $92 million bribe from Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht to Dominican Republic officials as kickbacks. Odebrecht Donated $50-$100k to the Clinton Foundation.
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Benjamin Bol Mel; Sudan – Financial Advisor to South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and president of ABMC construction company accused of corruption. Hillary Clinton pushed for a waiver from the Obama Admin on the prohibition of military aid due to the use of child soldiers in South Sudan.
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Artem Yuryevich Chayka; Russia – Son of Russia’s Prosecutor General, Yuri Chayka (Chaika) – used father’s connections to win state owned contracts. Curiously, Russian Attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya met with Yuri Chayka before her involvement in the infamous Trump Tower meeting arranged by Fusion GPS associate Rob Goldstone – a meeting many believe was one of several schemes used by the Obama administration to justify wiretapping the Trump campaign. Of note – Donald Trump Jr. reportedly shut down the Trump tower meeting when Natalia Veselnitskaya began discussing lifting sanctions under the Magnitsky act – the very legislation Trump’s Executive Order is now leveraging against Artem Chayka.
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Mukhtar Hamid Shah; Pakistan – surgeon specializing in kidney transplants, believed to be involved in kidnapping, wrongful confinement, and the removal of and tracking in human organs from Pakistani laborers.
The rest of the 13 individuals have engaged in a variety of corruption and human rights abuses ranging from a Serbian arms dealer believed to be linked to a $95 million deal with Yemen, to government officials who ordered journalists murdered, to several instances of serious human rights violations. (h/t @HNIJohnMiller)
One wonders if perhaps the purpose of this Executive Order addressing serious human rights abusers and corruption – a national emergency, was intended to ensure the much talked about swamp renovation comes in ahead of schedule and under budget. We’ll know for sure if Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin starts freezing bank accounts after the holidays.
Rogue subordinate Mueller is is brazenly casting his fishing net for anything
President Trump’s lawyers are giving their client terrible legal advice, while dangerously raising the president’s expectations that a letter will be issued clearing him from any Russian collusion matters, as several people have relayed to me that the president told them.
The indictments of Paul Manafort and General Michael Flynn, for charges unrelated to the mythical Russian collusion, along with the shocking news that Mueller had subpoenaed Trump’s Deutsche Bank records relating to his real estate developments are likely to have made the president’s asshole pucker.
With no special counsel law in place to restrain him and no constitutional officer to whom he must account, Mueller is brazenly casting his fishing net far afield of any supposed Russian collusion in order to justify himself and his quixotic jihad.
Trump lawyer Ty Cobb appears to be confident with a legal ‘strategy’ of dropping all assertions of executive privilege, handing over reams of documents and relying on a misguided faith in the innate fairness of Robert Mueller.
This view reflects a hopeless naivete that plays right into the hands of the beltway’s duopoly establishment and serves only to abet their single-minded determination to nullify the results of the 2016 presidential election.
Mr. Mueller will likely attempt to bring some sort of loosely-defined after-the-fact process charge against the president, such as obstruction of justice for what is said to be the president’s ‘direction’ of Comey.
Considering Mueller’s bully boy tactics such as the ridiculously-excessive and unnecessary FBI raids of Paul Manafort’s apartment and General Michael Flynn’s office, as well as the incestuous working relationships of Mueller with Comey, Assistant Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, the stench of corruption and nefarious ulterior motivations around Mueller’s crypto-partisan lynch mob is really beginning to fill the air.
The revelations about FBI “investigator” Peter Strzok and his patently-lopsided actions taken against anyone in Donald Trump’s team, while going out of his way not only to excuse but in fact cover over, if not cover up, the serious national security crimes of the Clinton apparatchiks with whom he so clearly is aligned, adds an even more sinister dimension to just how deeply and firmly Mueller’s partisan hit team is irretrievably-compromised and inexcusably-tainted.
Only one stunning move by the president will firmly squash this lawless, rogue, unconstitutional cabal which has been cynically operating under his auspices. To make this move the president must understand and embrace the extent of his power as the duly-elected chief executive of our national government.
Based on his tweets and comments the president’s lawyers have clearly, yet very wrongly, advised him that it is somehow improper for the president to communicate with or give direction to the Department of Justice or to the Attorney General on any matters, whether or not they pertain to him.
The president must order the U.S Attorney General Jeff Sessions to name a special prosecutor to look into, among other things, the Uranium One scam that was run on the American people by the Clinton crime syndicate, with the involvement of all of the key figures who so coincidentally happen to also be at the center of this illegitimate ad hoc Trump-takedown hit squad, now headed by counterfeit boy scout Robert Swan Mueller III.
If Sessions fails to carry out this order, he should be and must be removed as attorney general (the honorable thing for Sessions would be to resign if he parts ways with the president on this). The departure of Sessions would then leave the clearly-compromised Rod Rosenstein, once again, in the position of appointing a special prosecutor, as was the case with Mueller’s appointment. Rosenstein’s implication in Uranium One makes this patently untenable, so the next Justice officer in line to effectuate the president’s command would be the Solicitor General.
Only Donald Trump can save his presidency from this outrageous partisan lynch mob illegitimately operating under his nose and under his very authority as president, intent on undermining his election and thereby the office of president itself.
Lest the leftist screechers draw their predictable false equivalencies, this would be no “Saturday night massacre”. It would be a Saturday night rescue…of our constitution, of the rule of law and of the integrity of our Republic itself.
GOP Congressional investigators have written six letters to individuals or entities involved or thought to be involved in the funding, creation or distribution of the salacious and unverified “Trump-Russia dossier” believed to have been inappropriately used by the FBI, DOJ and Obama Administration in an effort to undermine Donald Trump as both a candidate and President of the United States.
Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SCS) wrote six Judiciary Committee letters requesting information from: John Podesta, Donna Brazille, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Robbie Mook, the DNC, and Hillary For America Chief Strategist Joel Benenson.
A brief refresher of facts and allegations:
The DNC and Hillary Clinton’s PAC was revealed by The Washington Post to have paid opposition research firm Fusion GPS for the creation of a dossier that would be harmful to then-candidate Donald Trump.
Fusion commissioned former UK spy Christopher Steele to assemble the dossier – which is comprised of a series of memos relying largely on Russian government sources to make allegations against Donald Trump and his associates.
According to court filings, Fusion also worked with disgraced DOJ official Bruce Ohr, and hired his CIA-linked wife, Nellie Ohr, to assist in the smear campaign against Trump. Bruce Ohr was demoted from his senior DOJ position after it was revealed that he met with Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson as well as Christopher Steele – then tried to cover it up.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, denied under oath to the Senate Intelligence Committee that he knew about the dossier’s funding, while Clinton’s former spokesman, Brian Fallon, told CNN that Hillary likely had no idea who paid for it either.
Current and past leaders of the DNC, including Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) also denied knowledge of the document’s funding.
The Senate Judiciary Committee letters read in part:
In October 2017, the Washington Post reported that Hillary for America and the Democratic National Committee had funded, via Fusion GPS, Christopher Steele’s creation of a series of memosrelying largely on Russian government sources to make allegations against Donald Trump and his associates. A letter from the law firm Perkins Coie acknowledged that, ” [t]o assist in its representation of the DNC and Hillary for America, Perkins Coie engaged Fusion GPS in April of2016″ and that “the engagement concluded prior to the November 2016 Presidential election
the Committee has been investigating the FBI’ s relationship with Christopher Steele during this time his work was funded by Hillary for America and the DNC. The scope of our review includes the extent to which the FBI may have relied on information relayed by Mr. Steele in seeking judicial authorization for surveillance of individuals associated with Mr. Trump. It also includes whether any applications that may have been made for permission for such surveillance fully and accurately disclosed:
(1) the source of Fusion GPS’s and Mr. Steele’s funding;
(2) the degree to which his claims were or were not verified;
(3) the motivations of Mr. Steele, his clients, and his sources; and
( 4) representations about their contacts with the press.
The letter then goes on to list twelve questions – the last being a request for all communications between a list of 40 individuals or entities – including Christopher Steele, Bruce Ohr, Peter Strzok, Andrew McCabe, Glenn Simpson and former CIA Director John Brennan.
The six recipients of letters have two weeks to comply with the following requests (note; “Hillary for America” is replaced by “the DNC” depending on who the letter is addressed to):
1. Prior to the Washington Post ‘s article in October of 2017, were you anyone else at Hillary for America aware of Mr. Steele’s efforts on behalf of the Clinton campaign to compile and distribute allegations about Mr. Trump and the Russian government? If so, when and how did you first learn of his activities on the campaign’s behalf? Please provide all related documents.
2. Did you or anyone else at Hillary for America receive copies of any of the memoranda comprising Mr. Steele’s dossier prior to its publication by Buzzfeed in January of 2017? If so, how and when? Please provide all related documents.
3. Regardless of whether you or your associates received copies of the actual memoranda, did you or anyone else at Hillary for America otherwise receive information contained in the dossier prior to Buzzfeed publishing the dossier in January of 2017? If so, how and when? Please provide all related documents.
4. Did you or anyone else at Hillary for America receive other memoranda written or forwarded by Mr. Steele regarding Mr. Trump and his associates that were not published as part of the Buzzfeed dossier? If so, how and when? Please provide all related documents.
5. Did you or anyone else at Hillary for America distribute outside of the organization any o f the dossier memoranda, information contained therein, or other information obtained by Mr. Steele? If so, please list who distributed the information, what was distributed, and to whom it was distributed. Please provide all related documents.
6. Did you or anyone else at Hillary for America communicate with any government officials – whether in the executive, legislative or judicial branches – regarding the dossier memoranda, information contained therein, or other information obtained by Mr. Steele? If so, please list the parties involved in the communication, the content of the communication, and the date and means of the communication. Please provide all related documents. References such as “anyone at Hillary for America” include all of Hillary for America’s officers, employees, contractors, subcontractors, advisors, volunteers, and, of course, Secretary Clinton herself. Mr. Podesta January 25, 2018
7. Did you or anyone else at Hillary for America instruct, request, suggest, or imply that any individuals should pass along information to Mr. Steele or his intermediaries? Please provide all related documents.
8. Did you or anyone else at Hillary for America communicate with members of the press regarding the dossier memoranda, information contained therein, or other information obtained by Mr. Steele? If so, please list the parties involved in the communication, the content of the communication, and the date and means of the communication. Please provide all related documents.
9. Did you or anyone else at Hillary for America inform Secretary Clinton of Mr. Steele’s efforts, whether by name or not, or of the allegations he was spreading? If so, who and when? Please provide all related documents.
10. Were you or anyone else at Hillary for America aware of Mr. Steele’s contacts with the FBI or other government agencies prior to the 2016 election? If so, who? When and how did you or they become aware? Please provide all related documents.
11. Did you or anyone else at Hillary for America encourage, whether directly or through intermediaries, Mr. Steele to initiate or continue contacts with the FBI or other government agencies? If so, who and when? Please provide all related documents.
12. For the period from March 2016 through January 2017, please provide all communications to, from, copying, or relating to:Fusion GPS; Bean LLC; Glenn Simpson; Mary Jacoby; Peter Fritsch; Tom Catan; Jason Felch; Neil King; David Michaels; Taylor Sears; Patrick Corcoran; Laura Sego; Jay Bagwell; Erica Castro; Nellie Ohr; Rinat Akhmetshin; Ed Lieberman; Edward Baumgartner; Orbis Business Intelligence Limited; Orbis Business International Limited; Walsingham Training Limited; Walsingham Partners Limited; Christopher Steele; Christopher Burrows; Sir Andrew Wood, Paul Hauser; 4 Oleg Deripaska; Cody Shearer; Sidney Blumenthal; Jon Winer; 5 Kathleen Kavalec; Victoria Nuland; Daniel Jones; 6 Bruce Ohr; Peter Strzok; Andrew McCabe; James Baker; 7 Sally Yates; Loretta Lynch; John Brennan.
Billions in sanctioned Libyan funds from Muammar Gaddafi—meant to be given back to the Libyan people—are being stolen by secret interests from frozen accounts in Belgium.
The mixed messages from yesterday’s “shocking” indictments of some Russian trolls (while The FBI was busily ignoring potential mass murderers in Florida) need some context to calm the chaotic “told you so” narrative spewing from every orifice of every side in this debacle.
Hillary Clinton spent 53 times more money per month than Russians seeking to influence the 2016 presidential election.
As The Daily Caller’s Amber Athey details, according to reports, the monthly Russian budget for the operation to meddle in the election was $1.2 million. As Peter Hamby pointed out on Twitter, Clinton and supporting PAC Priorities USA spent approximately $800 million in 2016.
Twitter
That means Clinton and her PAC spent about $66 million a month in 2016, a whopping 53 times more money than Russia’s $1.25 million monthly budget.
It’s also worth nothing that not all of the money spent by the Russian operation was used to campaign for President Donald Trump. According to the Mueller indictment released Friday, Russian trolls also supported Jill Stein and Bernie Sanders and even planted seeds for leftist groups like “Blacktivist” and “Woke Blacks.”
After the election, Russians continued to sow division in the United States by riling up “#Resist” groups involved in anti-Trump protests.
But none of that matters… Russians ‘meddled’ – end of story, Adam Schiff will no doubt be popping corks this weekend.
Either that or it’s an unconstitutional power grab designed to gin up “progressives” against those they hate, plus get Rep. Swalwell lots of free publicity to make it look like he’s a credible leader, as opposed to a pandering political opportunist. And point of order, it ain’t “our democracy.” And that fist looks familiar. (Rep. Eric Swalwell – Facebook)
“Rep. Eric Swalwell (CA-15), a member of the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees, on Monday introduced the Journalist Protection Act to make a federal crime of certain attacks on those reporting the news,” the Congressman’s media flack team announced. “The Journalist Protection Act makes it a federal crime to intentionally cause bodily injury to a journalist affecting interstate or foreign commerce in the course of reporting or in a manner designed to intimidate him or her from newsgathering for a media organization.”
Why is he pushing this, aside from to ingratiate himself with the press (he’s got the Communications Workers of America and the News Media for Open Government coalition giving him thumbs up)?
“President Trump has created a climate of extreme hostility to the press by describing mainstream media outlets as ‘a stain on America,’ ‘trying to take away our history and our heritage,’ and ‘the enemy of the American People,’” the release claims.
You see what Swalwell’s doing here. Understanding that President Trump is an avatar for his supporters, this is an attempt to conflate them with violent haters. And for the life of me, I’m trying to see where Trump is wrong in his assessment.
Still we don’t want people beating up our crusading reporters, do we?
Mr. Benny?
No, of course not. No sane and honorable person believes in initiating violence in a Bill of Rights culture under rule of law. Certainly no supporter of the Constitution does, and I’d challenge Rep. Swalwell to produce one who has. As a matter of fact, you don’t need to look far to find headlines like:
First of all, as legal commentator Amy Swearer points out at The Daily Signal:
“The general police power—that is, the broad authorization to enforce criminal law—is reserved to the individual states by the 10th Amendment. The federal government’s ability to enact and enforce criminal statutes is limited, and must be based on one or more of its enumerated powers.”
And there are already laws in each state against assaulting and/or threatening people.
So Swalwell tries to get around that by claiming this involves interstate commerce. Unsurprisingly, considering he’s a California Democrat, his fidelity to the Founders’ understanding of the Commerce Clause is as fraudulent as his fidelity to their intent for all enumerated powers.
Swalwell’s journalist bill raises two other glaring issues:
“Whoever … intentionally commits, or attempts to commit … an act … with the intention of intimidating or impeding newsgathering by such journalist…”
That leaves much open to interpretation. We’ve all seen “snowflakes” demand “safe spaces” because they claim “conservative” speakers make them “feel” unsafe. And I’ve seen plenty of “progressives” claiming to have been threatened by statements of sentiment, rather than intent. There’s a big difference between my saying I predict or hope something happens to you as opposed to I am going to do it to you. And that’s coming from someone who has endured anonymous “pop a cap in yo’ a$$” – type comments on numerous occasions over the years.
There’s also his qualifying definition for what constitutes a “journalist”:
“The term ‘journalist’ means an individual who— ‘‘(A) is an employee, independent contractor, or agent of an entity or service that disseminates news or information…”
In other words, if you’re an independent citizen journalist, what Juan Williams disparaged as “just a blogger,” guess who Swalwell doesn’t give a rip about? More importantly, guess which story was broken by “independents” going where “professional” media did not?
I’ve been fighting that “Authorized Journalist” crap for years, and while I’ve since gained generally-recognized credentials, I’ll always remember the time before I did, 22 years ago. That’s when I was threatened with arrest for trying — as Swalwell’s bill requires — “to investigate events or procure material in order to disseminate to the public news or information concerning local, national, or international events or other matters of public interest…”
Fortunately, because it’s a lunatic bill everyone knows is just being introduced to get some ink (a lot, actually) to make him appear relevant, Swalwell’s attention-seeking gesture is going nowhere. While GovTrack hasn’t posted a likelihood of enactment prognosis yet, my prediction is the percentage will be in the single digits. Feel free to revisit that link in a few days and see if I’m close.
There’s another general observation that needs to be made, and that is how the press seems to believe it is above accountability for its role in promoting subversion. Per Pat Buchanan’s latest:
“These people are political enemies posturing as journalists who create ‘fake news’ to destroy me, says Trump. Enraged media, responding, reveal themselves to be not far removed from what Trump says they are.”
Instead of “MSM,” I’ve taken to calling them the DSM, which stands for “Duranty/Streicher Media.” Walter Duranty was The New York Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning (!) apologist for Stalin, who helped cover up the communist dictator’s engineered mass starvation in the Ukraine, and who portrayed Great Purge victims as guilty. And Julius Streicher was a prominent anti-Jewish propagandist for the Nazis who ended up on the end of a rope after being convicted at Nuremberg.
“Just a blogger,” colleague and friend, the late Mike Vanderboegh, on occasion saw fit to remind journalists that media figures like Streicher had been held to account before, and that doing so in time of conflict was now a U.S. policy initiated by one of their “progressive” political heroes. He called it “Bill Clinton’s Rules of Engagement,” observing:
“Bill Clinton changed the American rules of war as they then applied. The Serbs were being recalcitrant, so, in his frustration, he decided that the politicians, the news media and the intellectuals who laid the predicate for the enemy’s war effort were legitimate targets of war.”
In other words, it’s in their self-interest to not stoke the fires of rebellion to where American citizens are left with no choices but to surrender all pretexts of principles and obey clearly tyrannical orders — or say “Nuts” and start pushing force back with force of their own..
Swalwell and his media fanboys would probably consider that idea the kind of threat his bill would mete out severe punishment for. At the risk of becoming a target (I know, it’s probably a little late for that), I’d call trying to do that a huge mistake.
Let’s instead rely on the framework for peaceable redress designed by the Founders, one with limited delegated powers for the national government, powers compliant with “the supreme Law of the Land” for the states, and respect by all for the Bill of Rights.
Let’s make sure full due process — along with a right to keep and bear arms that shall not be infringed — applies to all: You, me, and hell, even politicians and journalists.
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Just hours after responding to a report that revealed that she had protected a member of her campaign who was accused of repeated sexual harassment, failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton appeared in a bizarre video “shout out” to feminist activists she claims to support.
The former Secretary of State made the strange comments in a video posted to the Twitter account of Huffington Post commentator Alex Mohajer.
“Hey everyone, I just wanted to say thanks,” Clinton can be heard saying as the video zooms in on her face. “Thank you for your feminism, for your activism, and all I can hope if you keep up the really important good work.”
As the video continues someone can be heard shouting in the background, “activist b***hes supporting b***hes before Clinton apparently decided to repeat it.
“And let me just say, this is directed to the activist b***hes supporting b***hes, so let’s go,” Hillary laughably stated.
In a follow up tweet about his now viral post, Mohajer claimed that activist b***hes supporting b***hes is actually the name of a hard-left feminist group that was asking for and got a shout out from Clinton.
Regardless the video is extremely weird, especially when you consider that it was published just hours after Clinton responded to a highly sourced report that detailed her protection of a serial sexual harasser.
“The report revealed the disgusting allegations against Clinton faith adviser Burns Strider and the shocking fact that after his young subordinate came forward, Clinton herself apparently stepped in to keep him on her campaign while moving his alleged victim elsewhere,” I wrote in a write up about the allegations for SHTFplan.com
“Not only did Clinton herself protect Strider, her own staff, who were completely aware of his conduct, refused to even speak about it for almost 10 years in order to protect Hillary and her political ambitions.”
In true Clinton fashion, Hillary responded to the allegations by flat out lying, ludicrously claiming that she did the EXACT OPPOSITE of what the New York Times report alleges.
A story appeared today about something that happened in 2008. I was dismayed when it occurred, but was heartened the young woman came forward, was heard, and had her concerns taken seriously and addressed.
Keep in mind, Clinton specifically protected the woman’s abuser and is now expecting the American people to believe that she was “heartened” by the woman coming forward in the first place?!
Unbelievable.
Weinstein’s victims were also heard — by legions of PIs and lawyers. Nassar’s victims were also heard — by incompetent, evil bureaucrats. Being “heard” is not enough. You heard, and you moved *her* https://t.co/idqUkx0yye
Liberal feminist icon and failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton protected one of her senior advisers during her 2008 presidential campaign after he was accused of repeatedly sexually harassing a young staffer, according to a bombshell new report in The New York Times.
The report, supposedly sourced by four different people familiar with the matter, details the allegations against Clinton faith adviser Burns Strider and the shocking fact that after his young subordinate came forward, Clinton herself apparently stepped in to keep him on her campaign while moving his alleged victim elsewhere.
The Times wrote:
Mrs. Clinton’s campaign manager at the time recommended that she fire the adviser, Burns Strider. But Mrs. Clinton did not. Instead, Mr. Strider was docked several weeks of pay and ordered to undergo counseling, and the young woman was moved to a new job.
Mr. Strider, who was Mrs. Clinton’s faith adviser, a co-founder of the American Values Network, and sent the candidate scripture readings every morning for months during the campaign, was hired five years later to lead an independent group that supported Mrs. Clinton’s 2016 candidacy, Correct the Record, which was created by a close Clinton ally, David Brock.
He was fired after several months for workplace issues, including allegations that he harassed a young female aide, according to three people close to Correct the Record’s management.
Mr. Strider did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Those familiar with the accounts said that, over the years, a number of advisers urged Mrs. Clinton to sever ties with Mr. Strider, and people familiar with what took place did not want to see Mrs. Clinton blamed for the misconduct of men she was close to.
The allegations that Clinton specifically helped cover up sexual harassment while remaining close friends with the alleged attacker come at a time when women across industries throughout the country are coming forward with their stories of abuse and, in many cases, coverup afterwards.
The woman’s experience and the reaction to it have not been previously reported. Until now, former Clinton associates were unwilling to discuss the events for publication.
But that changed in the wake of the #MeToo movement, in which dozens of men across the country and across different industries, have been fired or suspended for sexual misconduct.
The complaint against Mr. Strider was made by a 30-year-old woman who shared an office with him. She told a campaign official that Mr. Strider had rubbed her shoulders inappropriately, kissed her on the forehead and sent her a string of suggestive emails, including at least one during the night, according to three former campaign officials familiar with what took place.
The complaint was taken to Ms. Doyle, the campaign manager, who approached Mrs. Clinton and urged that Mr. Strider, who was married at the time, be fired, according to the officials familiar with what took place. Mrs. Clinton said she did not want to, and instead he remained on her staff.
So not only did Clinton herself protect Strider, her own staff, who were completely aware of his conduct, refused to even speak about it for almost 10 years in order to protect Hillary and her political ambitions.
This is the Clinton machine at its finest folks and once again destroys the false media narrative surrounding who Hillary Clinton the person actually is.
One can imagine that Clinton operatives within the media will soon begin to downplay this shocking report while somehow blaming Donald Trump.
The recently revealed text messages from Clinton operatives within the FBI that spoke about a “secret society” within the agency that met to discuss ways to take out President Trump have led many to question how those involved still have a job at the agency despite the mounting evidence of widespread corruption.
Keep in mind that it has already been revealed that top counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok, along with his mistress, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, were directly involved in a conspiracy to protect their preferred presidential candidate in Hillary Clinton while doing everything in their power to hurt her opponent, Donald Trump.
Now we know that those two, along with a slew of others within the federal government, actually continued their operation against Trump after he was democratically elected, even taking their conspiracy so far as to set up a sort of secret society which included the same key figures who helped jump start the sham Russian investigation in the first place.
Amazingly, there are apparently agents with the FBI itself who are just as angry about said conspiracy as are the American people and are now telling reporters that they are concerned that those involved still work for the FBI in any capacity.
According to a report from investigative journalist Sara Carter, agents within the FBI have told her that they question how anti-Trump operatives such as Strzok and Page even still have a job after all the shocking revelations surrounding their work to protect Clinton and hurt Trump.
Carter pointed out that previously revealed Strzok-Page texts alluded to an “insurance policy” that could be used if Trump won the presidency.
“Their worst nightmare has come true, the president is elected. That is something they did not expect. FBI sources said from the very beginning that they didn’t want Trump to make it into office.”
“I’m concerned that they’re still working at the FBI,” Carter said. “I’m hearing from my sources, too. FBI agents are saying, ‘Why are they still there?"”
“The Lovebirds. They were having an affair, they were both married, they’re working counter-intelligence. That’s enough for blackmail,” Carter said. “Now they’re sending text messages on an unsecured phone. Believe me, the Germans, the Russians, the Israelis, everybody is going into those phones and trying to suck out all the information they have.”
One has to wonder if they simply know too much and cannot be fully fired over fears that they may spill the beans on the entire conspiracy which many now believe to be worse than Watergate.
Carter also touched on the laughable claim that the missing text messages (from a key point when those involved would actually be carrying out key parts of the conspiracy) were lost due to some sort of cellphone glitch.
About the FBI’s claim that the Samsung phones are responsible for the 50,000 additional missing text messages, Carter says: “I can tell you this, a lot of people within the DOJ, possibly even the inspector general himself, a lot of people within these committees do not buy this.“
The people at Right Media have a video on the Gulftainer scandal, which is coming to light, wherein Gulftainer, with direct links to the United Arab Emirates government and several very questionable individuals, obtained a lease on facilities in Port Canaveral, in Florida, a national security hub, with the help of people closely connected to the Clinton Global Initiative and Barack Obama. This lease was obtained in a no-bid deal under very questionable circumstances.
This is yet another brewing scandal involving the Clintons and Barack Obama.
Shortly after Donald Trump was inaugurated he fired Michael Flynn.
What’s become the conventional subtext is that the intelligence agencies have launched a “soft coup” against Trump, he has been significantly weakened, and the Deep State has scored a major victory.
Rejecting that subtext, SLL developed in “Plot Holes” and later articles a series of interrelated hypotheses. We posited that Trump was smarter and the Deep State weaker and more incompetent than generally reckoned. Also, that the Deep State’s animus towards Trump was based chiefly on fear of exposure and prosecution for its long history of corruption and criminality, not policy differences, notably concerning Russia. Finally, we suggested Trump is chiefly motivated by a drive for power. These hypotheses yielded testable predictions.
As predicted, the Russiagate investigation, based as it is on nothing, is now recognized as a monumental blunder. It forced the Deep State into the open and revealed its prosecutorial forbearance towards Hillary Clinton, its effort to help her and hinder Trump during the election, and its attempt to depose Trump afterwards. The FBI has been exposed as the antithesis of a concept implied by the word investigation: impartiality. Holdovers from the Obama Justice Department have been compromised.
The tables are turned. As the Russiagate investigation fades, Trump is left with investigatory gold mines: Uranium One, Fusion GPS, FBI and Department of Justice political meddling and obstruction of justice, Hillary Clinton’s emails, and the Clinton foundation. Trump could fire Robert Mueller with only a minor political uproar, but Mueller’s making a fool of himself to Trump’s political benefit. Why stop him?
As for those gold mines, Trump will decide if the threat of an investigation or an actual investigation best satisfies his leverage and power calculations and proceed accordingly. There has been no general swamp draining, nor will there be. Trump uses investigatory threats as a Machiavellian tactic to extract what he wants from compromised political actors in useful positions. The Clintons and James Comey, no longer in power and thus, no longer useful, are the most likely to be investigated and prosecuted.
In foreign policy, recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel emphasizes Trump’s pronounced tilt toward Israel. Acquiescing to Saudi Arabia’s hapless war against Yemen and Mohammed Bin Salman’s recent purge confirms his support of that regime. In return, Israel and Saudi Arabia have sat still for Trump’s discontinuance of the US policy of supporting Islamic extremists to further regime changes (see “Powerball, Part Two”). This has meant accepting a de facto victory for the Russian-Shia alliance in Syria. US support for the Middle East’s Sunni bloc and Israel as Russian backs the Shiite bloc may lead to a standoff that brings a reduction in violence in that troubled region. It has already begun to reduce refugee flows from the area to Europe.
This is not to say that Trump’s rhetorical broadsides against Iran will stop, but the claims that the US is on the verge of war are overblown. Such a conflict would lead to a Middle East conflagration and the third officially recognized world war.
Trump’s blasts against North Korea are more problematic. His task there is more difficult than Iran; North Korea has nuclear weaponry purportedly able to strike most of the US. Trump has two options: a military strike designed to wipe out North Korea’s nuclear arsenal and Kim Jong-un’s regime, or negotiations that ratify the status quo, with Russia and China applying continuing pressure to enforce Kim’s compliance. At this point Trump may not know what he’s going to do, other than more verbal shots at North Korea and continuing displays of military strength in the region.
Trump has started no new wars. His administration has rolled back some regulations and he just won a legislative victory on tax reform. That may give him enough of a headwind to readdress Obamacare, which has neither been repealed nor replaced. He has his enemies on their back feet. Only fringe elements are still talking about impeachment. The government’s statistics indicate growth is running at above 3 percent, better than trend Obama growth, and the stock indexes keep making new records.
In 2017 SLL made contrarian, optimistic predictions for the president and pessimistic predictions for the economy and stock market (see “Hard Core Doom Porn”) We’ve been more right on the former than the latter…so far. For 2018, we’re with the minority who see clouds and thunderstorms, not silver linings. This is about as good as it gets for Trump.
Deft—by this analysis—as Trump has been, his biggest challenge lies ahead. The government is bankrupt, and demographics will push it ever-deeper in the hole. The global economy is struggling under monstrous and unsupportable debt. Fiat money something-for-nothing has a sell-by date, sooner or later the stock market and economy will head south. Historically, there’s been a tight correlation between stocks, the economy, and presidential popularity.
Debt has been Trump’s siren song his entire career, and more than once he’s crashed on the rocks. Big triumphs have been followed by big disasters, hubris undoubtedly playing a role.
Stock market and cryptocurrency pyrotechnics have obscured an incipient bear trend in a much more important market, bonds, which in the US apparently topped out in July 2016. Falling bond prices mean rising interest rates. The world has never been more indebted; a global bear market in bonds would be toxic to equity markets and economies (and perhaps cryptocurrencies). Tellingly, high yield bond prices are diverging from rising stock prices, indicating increasing credit stress. According to David Stockman, tax reform will increase the government’s borrowing to $1.25 trillion in fiscal year 2019. Rising rates would add more to the government’s interest bill, and hit indebted businesses and individuals as well. They would offer relief to savers long abused by the Fed’s interest rate suppression tactics, but savers are a much smaller group than borrowers, and they spend less.
Rising debt and ever-expanding government are in large part responsible for a long-term decline in trend economic growth rates across the developed world. Much of what growth there has been was funded with debt. If you buy $100 dollars worth of good or services on credit you have not increased your income, your personal “gross domestic product.” If the government does the same, it registers as an increase in the gross domestic product. Back out such debt-funded “growth” and it’s unclear if there’s been any growth at all since 2009.
In the US, real incomes have stagnated since the turn of the century. Rising equity markets and falling growth rates mean that corporate valuations are in the stratosphere. Joined with off-the-chart measures of optimism and declining central bank support, equity markets are poised for a fall. That it hasn’t happened yet doesn’t mean it won’t. It’s never “different this time.” Given the leverage and speculation embedded in the market, the fall could be breathtaking, a quick drop of 50 percent or more.
As noted, falling stock markets and economies generally take the popularity of incumbent politicians with them. Trump, the most polarizing political figure since Franklin Roosevelt, is not all that popular to begin with. The Deep State that has ruled this country since World War II is down; it would be unwise to count it out. It will certainly capitalize on financial and economic turmoil to launch a counterattack against Trump.
Next year’s silver lining may be that it marks peak government. Governments have coopted much of the world’s resources and put a gigantic lien on its future production. In a severe economic contraction, the wherewithal from taxes and credit markets that would allow them to grow even bigger—and thus more intrusive and repressive—simply won’t be there.
A financial and political focal point will be pension and medical funds. Many such funds are visibly under stress. Widespread insolvency is inevitable, especially if equity and credit markets head south. The resultant fear and fury will be uncontrollable, obliterating today’s widespread, quasi-religious faith in government and its works. The upheaval would make present discord look like a picnic in the park.
It would be unwise to rely on anything but one’s own resources, family, and friends during the coming turmoil. It would be wise to shore up those defenses, and soon.
Now consider that if reports from The Hill are accurate – 
