Archive for the ‘Transparency’ Category
Friday, December 13th, 2019
THE EPOCH TIMES
William Barr Has Suddenly Become Chatty—and He’s Provided Quite an Information Dump
Sharyl Attkisson
DCONTRIBUTOR
December 12, 2019
In each of two video appearances, on NBC News and at Wall Street Journal’s “CEO Council,” Attorney General William Barr provided the same basic information and views about the U.S. intelligence community’s actions against the Trump campaign in 2016 and 2017. A criminal investigation is underway and being led by U.S. Attorney John Durham.
Barr was motivated to make the public statements, he said, by the misreporting and confusion surrounding Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report issued on Dec. 9. It found serious government surveillance abuses but no evidence of political bias on the part of the offending
FBI officials and agents.
Below are 24 points Barr felt the need to make after the release of the Horowitz report. (All of the information is attributed to Barr.)
1. Don’t expect Durham’s findings to be announced before late spring or summer 2020.
2. The FBI did spy on the Trump campaign. That’s what electronic surveillance is.
3. Regarding the FBI’s actions in surveilling Trump campaign associates, it was a “travesty” and there were “many abuses.”
4. From “day one,” the FBI investigation generated exculpatory information (tending to point to the targets’ innocence) and nothing that corroborated Russia collusion.
5. It’s a “big deal” to use U.S. law enforcement and intelligence resources to investigate the opposing political party, and I cannot think of another recent instance in which this happened.
6. Evidence to start the FBI’s investigation into Trump associates was “flimsy” from the start and based on the idea that Trump aide George Papadopoulos expressed he may have had pre-knowledge of a Democrat National Committee computer hack. However, it was actually just an offhand barroom comment by a young campaign aide described merely as a “suggestion of a suggestion, a vague allusion” to the fact that the Russians may have something they can dump. But by that time, May 2016, there was already rampant speculation online and in political circles that the Russians had hacked Hillary Clinton’s emails in 2014 and that they might surface. So the idea that Papadopoulos’s comment showed pre-knowledge of the Democratic National Committee hack and dump “is a big stretch.”
7. It was “wrong” for the FBI to presume the Trump campaign was part of a plot. They should have gone to the campaign and discussed their suspicions.
Posted in Administrative State, American History, Big Government, Congress, Constitution, Corruption/Crime, Deep State, Democrats, Donald Trump, Election 2016, Election 2020, FBI, FBI Director, Foreign Policy, Hillary Clinton, Intelligence, James Comey, John Brennan, Justice Department, Legal Issues, Liberalism, Mueller, Obama Administraiton and Policy, Political Corruption, Progressive Movement, Radical Left, Resistance, Transparency, Tyranny | No Comments »
Thursday, December 12th, 2019
The Incredible Shrinking Impeachment
The Democratic grounds for ousting Trump are weak—and damaging to constitutional norms.
By the Editorial Board December 12, 2019
So that’s it? That’s all there is? After all the talk of obstruction of justice, collusion with Russia, bribery, extortion, profiting from the Presidency, and more, House Democrats have reduced their articles of impeachment against President Trump to two: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Honey, we shrunk the impeachment.
Democrats on the Judiciary Committee will vote as early as Thursday on the text of the two articles they unveiled Tuesday, and then they will rush it to the floor next week. It’s enough to suspect that Democrats understand they are offering the weakest case for impeachment since Andrew Johnson, that the public isn’t convinced, and so they simply want to get it over with.
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At least Johnson was impeached for violating a specific statute, the Tenure of Office Act, by firing Edwin Stanton as Secretary of War. There was wide agreement that Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton violated criminal statutes. In this case Democrats don’t even try to allege a criminal act.
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Posted in American History, Big Government, Congress, Constitution, Deep State, Democrats, Donald Trump, Election 2016, Election 2020, Foreign Policy, Founding Fathers, GOP, History, Legal Issues, Political Corruption, Progressive Movement, Radical Left, Transparency, U.S. Presidents | No Comments »
Thursday, December 12th, 2019
Posted in American History, Congress, Deep State, Democrats, Donald Trump, Election 2016, Election 2020, Foreign Policy, Media, Obama, Obama Administraiton and Policy, Resistance, Transparency, Videos | No Comments »
Thursday, December 5th, 2019
An in-depth look at George Soros and the Leftist groups that he supports. Nancy
Tribune Papers
George Soros and the Remaking of American Values
The Challenge to America’s Churches
By Mike Scruggs December 2019
www.thetribunepapers.com/2019/12/04/george-soros-and-the-remaking-of-american-
values/
By Mike Scruggs- George Soros was born in 1930 in Budapest, Hungary, to a nominally Jewish family and was educated at the London School of Economics, where he received BA, MA, and Ph.D. degrees.
George SorosHe became an American citizen in 1961 and celebrated his 89th birthday in August of this year. Before he donated $18 billion to his Open Society Foundations (OSF) in 2018, he was the 19th richest person in the world.
His major breakthrough to immense wealth came in 1992, when he shorted the British currency in a financial crisis, netting himself over $1.0 billion, and nearly breaking the Bank of England in its support for the European Union. Soros claims to have a system of identifying undervalued and overvalued bubbles in various markets.
Perhaps so, but the French government convicted him of insider trading in 2002, and fined him 2.2 million Euros, but this was a drop in the bucket for him. Counting the Foundations he controls his net worth is over $25 billion. By profession he is an investor and hedge fund manager. He is also widely known as an author and philanthropist. Soros created the OSF in 1979, which has contributed over $1.5 billion to 199 organizations in the United States alone. He has funded many others overseas.
Soros and his OSF organizations contribute mainly to left-wing organizations that oppose conservative Western values including traditional and evangelical forms of Christianity. He is good at deception and at making social chaos and ruthless politics sound as American as apple pie.
He is good at seducing religious leaders through misinformation, heretical Bible interpretations, and financial grants. He frequently uses immigration and racial issues to manipulate and mislead poorly informed Christians eager to embrace anything that makes them feel good and facilitates virtue-signaling. Soros is an atheist and elitist globalist.
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Posted in American History, Deep State, Democrats, Elitism, England, Europe, George Soros, Globalists, History, Identity Politics, Illegal Immigration, La Raza, One World Government, Open Borders, Political Corruption, Progressive Movement, Radical Left, Religion, Resistance, Social Justice, Socialism, Transparency, Voter Fraud | No Comments »
Monday, December 2nd, 2019
I have sent this article out before but thanks to Anthony Bruno for reminding us about it again. This article spells out exactly why Trump has such an appeal to so many people. Nancy
Trump’s ‘lack of decorum, dignity, and statesmanship’ By Evan Sayet in his article
“He Fights”
Excerpt from this article:
Imagine, for example, if CNN had honestly and accurately reported then-candidate Barack Obama’s close ties to foreign terrorists (Rashid Khalidi), domestic terrorists (William Ayers & Bernardine Dohrn), the mafia (Tony Rezko) or the true evils of his spiritual mentor, Jeremiah Wright’s church.
Imagine if they had honestly and accurately conveyed the evils of the Obama administration’s weaponizing of the IRS to be used against their political opponents or his running of guns to the Mexican cartels or the truth about the murder of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and the Obama administration’s cover-up.
My Leftist friends (as well as many ardent #NeverTrumpers) constantly ask me if I’m not bothered by Donald Trump’s lack of decorum. They ask if I don’t think his tweets are “beneath the dignity of the office.”
Here’s my answer: We Right-thinking people have tried dignity. There could not have been a man of more quiet dignity than George W. Bush as he suffered the outrageous lies and politically motivated hatreds that undermined his presidency.
We tried statesmanship.
Could there be another human being on this earth who so desperately prized “collegiality” as John McCain?
We tried propriety – has there been a nicer human being ever than Mitt Romney?
And the results were always the same. This is because, while we were playing by the rules of dignity, collegiality and propriety, the Left has been, for the past 60 years, engaged in a knife fight where the only rules are those of Saul Alinsky and the Chicago mob.
I don’t find anything “dignified,” “collegial” or “proper” about Barack Obama’s lying about what went down on the streets of Ferguson in order to ramp up racial hatreds because racial hatreds serve the Democratic Party.
I don’t see anything “dignified” in lying about the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi and imprisoning an innocent filmmaker to cover your tracks.
I don’t see anything “statesman-like” in weaponizing the IRS to be used to destroy your political opponents and any dissent.
Yes, Obama was “articulate” and “polished” but in no way was he in the least bit “dignified,” “collegial” or “proper.”
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Posted in American History, Big Government, Black Lives Matter, Class Warfare, Conservatism, Corruption/Crime, Deep State, Democrats, Diversity, Donald Trump, Election 2016, Election 2020, Eric Holder, Globalists, Identity Politics, IRS, Liberalism, Media, Mitt Romney, Nationalism, Obama, Obama Administraiton and Policy, Political Correctness, Political Corruption, Populism, Progressive Movement, Radical Left, Resistance, Reverend Wright, Rules For Radicals, Saul Alinsky, Transparency, Tyranny | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 26th, 2019
Here’s a little preview of what will be high on the agenda if Bloomberg ever becomes President. Climate Change on steroids !!! Please share with your email lists. People who consider him a moderate and a reasonable pick for president should think again. Remember how, as NYC mayor, he tried to ban the “Big Gulp”. He is just another liberal elitist who thinks he knows what is best for you and he has the $$$$$, power and prestige to do it. Nancy Trump 2020 !
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Bloomberg’s climate agenda finds success with privately funded state prosecutor in New Mexico
By Valerie Richardson – The Washington Times – Monday, October 28, 2019
The idea behind billionaire Michael R. Bloomberg’s State Impact Center was to promote a climate change agenda by providing state attorneys general with privately paid legal staff, and it seems to be working in New Mexico.
One of the state’s legal fellows, Robert Lundin, kept plenty busy in his first year, providing the “official legislative analysis” for the state’s “mini-Green New Deal” legislation, which passed in March, and working on the legal strategy to shut down a coal-fired electricity plant near Farmington.
“Mr. Lundin was involved in the on-going process to shut down San Juan Generating Station — a large, coal-fired power plant in New Mexico,” said the attorney general’s periodic report for the State Energy & Environmental Impact Center at New York University School of Law.
“He and lead counsel discussed legal strategy with many stakeholders to determine a course of action in regards to initiating a proceeding to retire the plant,” the report said. “The [Public Regulation] Commission then, following the strategy … ordered the public utility to abandon the coal plant.”
The report, obtained through an open records request by Power the Future, offers the first public glimpse at the work being done by the Bloomberg legal fellows, or special assistant attorneys general, since the hotly debated program was announced in 2017.
Larry Behrens, Western States director of Power the Future, an all-of-the-above energy advocacy group, said the four-page document from the New Mexico attorney general’s office shows that the embedded climate advocates are influencing state decision-making.
He said Mr. Lundin was tasked with undertaking the “official analysis” of legislation to increase the state’s renewable-portfolio standard to 100% carbon-free electricity generation by 2045, “which would lead the nation,” the report said.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, signed the Energy Transition Act, also known as the “mini-Green New Deal,” in March.
“Here you have someone who is paid by Michael Bloomberg and who is putting forward an official opinion from the New Mexico attorney general’s office about policy in New Mexico,” Mr. Behrens said.
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Posted in Big Government, Democrats, Election 2020, Elitism, Environmental Issues, Fracking, Global Warming, Government Regulation, Liberalism, Progressive Movement, Redistribution of Wealth, Social Justice, Technology, Transparency | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 26th, 2019
THE HILL
Impeachment inquiry: It’s a question of who should run the show
BY SHARYL ATTKISSON, Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) is an Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist, author of The New York Times best-sellers “The Smear” and “Stonewalled,” and host of Sinclair’s Sunday TV program, “Full Measure.” OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 11/25/19
Many will debate the substance of the public impeachment testimony against President Trump. To me, each of the Democrats’ witnesses of the past two weeks appeared to be well-intentioned and hard-working, and seemed genuinely to believe they know what’s best.
But a picture also emerged of U.S. diplomats who appear to believe they, rather than the U.S. president, have the ultimate authority to determine our foreign policy. And if the president doesn’t go along? He clearly must be wrong — in their view. Or, even worse, he’s a traitor. He’s to be obstructed. Taken down.
In an odd turnabout, they actually make the case for President Trump’s mantra that we need to “drain the swamp.”
One can first look at the language witnesses used as they vented about Trump’s tutelage in ways that veered far from relevance to the impeachment allegations. They conveyed hurt feelings, bruised egos and strong differences of opinion. At times, the testimony sounded a bit like a human resources conference or psychotherapy session.
The diplomats testified that they were “shocked and devastated” to learn that Trump and Ukraine’s new president did not have faith in them. They complained that, under Trump, “foreign service professionals are being denigrated and undermined” and the State Department isn’t getting the “attention and respect” it deserves. They expressed “disappointment” that Trump had the nerve to defy the federal agencies by not discussing “any of our interagency agreed-upon talking points” in Trump’s first call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky. They were “embarrassed” in front of Ukrainians when they didn’t have answers about U.S. policy.
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Posted in Administrative State, Big Government, Congress, Deep State, Donald Trump, Election 2016, Election 2020, Elitism, Europe, Foreign Policy, Globalists, Joe Biden, Obama Administraiton and Policy, Pelosi, Political Corruption, Progressive Movement, Putin, Resistance, Rudy Giuliani, Russia, State Department, Transparency, Ukraine | No Comments »
Monday, November 25th, 2019
Probably one of the best investigative reporters out there. Sadly this gives us a peak into the level of corruption that is found in the different agencies filled with career employees. And even more sadly little of this will get much attention or make headline news.
EXCERPT FROM THE ARTICLE:
Posted in Administrative State, Big Government, Congress, Corruption/Crime, Deep State, Democrats, Donald Trump, Election 2016, Election 2020, Elitism, Foreign Policy, Globalists, Intelligence, Joe Biden, Justice Department, Legal Issues, Media, Political Corruption, Resistance, Russia, State Department, Transparency, Ukraine | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 20th, 2019
VIDEO – ATTORNEY GENERAL WILLIAM BARR SPEAKING AT THE FEDERALIST SOCIETY (fast forward the video to approximately 28 for Barr to be speaking of “The Resistance”)
Attorney General William Barr denounced the left for “constant harassment” of President Trump in a speech delivered Friday at the Federalist Society’s 2019 National Lawyers Convention.
“In waging a scorched earth, no-holds-barred war of ‘Resistance’ against this Administration, it is the Left that is engaged in the systematic shredding of norms and the undermining of the rule of law,” Barr said.
Posted in Administrative State, Big Government, Congress, Constitution, Deep State, Democrats, Donald Trump, Election 2018, Election 2020, Founding Fathers, Justice Department, Legal Issues, Political Corruption, Politics, Progressive Movement, Radical Left, Resistance, Transparency, Tyranny, Videos | No Comments »
Monday, November 18th, 2019
End the War on Trump, Abolish the National Security Council
We can have free elections or the NSC.
Thu Nov 14, 2019
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the latest star of the Democrat effort to undo the 2016 election, is still at work on the National Security Council. While Trump supporters on the NSC like Rich Higgins and Ezra Cohen-Watnick were forced out, Vindman won’t be. NSC staffers who criticized Obama holdovers or sought to expose their misbehavior are gone, but Vindman is still there while undermining Trump.
And that’s the SNAFU of things on the NSC.
The National Security Council has been ground zero in the campaign against President Trump from the beginning. General Flynn’s appointment as National Security Advisor had touched the third rail because the NSC had been used to coordinate anti-Trump operations in the Susan Rice era.
The NSC doesn’t answer to Congress. Its members are meant to advise the president. (Except when they’re actually working for a previous president.) They command the implements of foreign policy, traditionally the weakest element in domestic politics, but not when they start treating their domestic political opponents as agents of a foreign state. And the size of the NSC has gotten out of control.
Under Obama, the NSC staff hit 400 people. That’s up from a dozen during its Cold War origins.
And it’s the staff that’s the problem.
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Posted in Administrative State, American History, Big Government, Clinton, Congress, Daniel Greenfield, Deep State, Democrats, Dept of Defense, Donald Trump, Foreign Policy, George W. Bush, Intelligence, Liberalism, Military, National Defense, National Security Advisor, Obama, Obama Administraiton and Policy, Progressive Movement, Radical Left, Resistance, State Department, Transparency, Tyranny | No Comments »