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.BLOGSPOT.COM Saturday, Jan. 20, 2018
All Gave Some~Some Gave All
Sunday at three --- Go Pats!
Lots of Bull (Pats fan)
Parking Ticket?‘Worse Than Watergate’: ‘Shocking’ House Intel Memo Allegedly Reveals FISA Abuse by Senior DOJ and FBI Officials
by KRISTINA WONG
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Members of the House on Thursday said they viewed a “shocking” classified memo allegedly detailing abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) by senior Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigations officials in relation to the investigation of the Trump campaign and called for it to be declassified and available to the public immediately.
“It’s troubling. It is shocking,” Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) told Fox News. “Part of me wishes that I didn’t read it because I don’t want to believe that those kinds of things could be happening in this country that I call home and love so much.”
“The facts contained in this memo are jaw-dropping and demand full transparency. There is no higher priority than the release of this information to preserve our democracy,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), a member of the Judiciary Committee, which oversees the DOJ and the FBI.
Another Judiciary Committee member, Rep. Steve King (R-IA), called what he saw in the memo “sickening” and said it was “worse than Watergate.”
Steve King ✔@SteveKingIAI have read the memo. The sickening reality has set in. I no longer hold out hope there is an innocent explanation for the information the public has seen. I have long said it is worse than Watergate. It was #neverTrump & #alwaysHillary. #releasethememo
Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), another Judiciary Committee member, called the memo “deeply troubling” and said it raises questions about the “Obama DOJ and Comey FBI.”
“The classified report compiled by House Intelligence is deeply troubling and raises serious questions about the upper echelon of the Obama DOJ and Comey FBI as it relates to the so-called collusion investigation,” he tweeted.
The classified report compiled by House Intelligence is deeply troubling and raises serious questions about the upper echelon of the Obama DOJ and Comey FBI as it relates to the so-called collusion investigation.
“You think about, ‘is this happening in America or is this the KGB?’ That’s how alarming it is,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) told Fox News.
“It is so alarming the American people have to see this,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, also said to network.
The viewing of the memo came after all Republican members of the House intelligence committee, whose investigators compiled the classified memo, voted Thursday to make it available to all House members. Every Democrat on the committee voted against it.
According to Gaetz, the memo’s contents could lead to the firing — and perhaps even jailing — of senior DOJ and FBI officials.
“I think that this will not end just with firings. I believe there are people who will go to jail,” he said on Fox News’ Hannity.
He said what he saw in the memo also explains why Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Judiciary Subcommittee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) recently referred the Fusion GPS dossier author Christopher Steele for a criminal investigation.
“I think there will be criminal implications here,” Gaetz added.
The memo also reportedly contains information about the dossier put together by Fusion GPS that alleged Trump and members of his team colluded with Russians in the 2016 election, according to a report by investigative journalist Sara Carter.
It was revealed in October that the dossier was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. Despite being a political document, the dossier was reportedly part of the evidence FBI officials used to apply for and obtain a warrant through a secret FISA court to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
Page told Breitbart News in a statement: “After over a year of inciting discord and threats of violence across America, it’s encouraging that the individuals in Washington responsible for these efforts to undermine our great democracy may be held accountable soon.”
Breitbart News reported on March 3, 2017, that the Obama administration took steps to undermine Trump’s presidential campaign using “police state” tactics, including spying on the Trump campaign. That report is widely believed to have led to President Trump’s tweet that later accused the Obama administration of wiretapping Trump Tower.
Members of the public and Congress are now calling for the document to be declassified and released to the public.
Immediately #ReleaseTheMemo #FISAMemo & ALL relevant material sourced in it. Every American needs to know the truth! We wouldn't be revealing any sources & methods that we shouldn't; only feds' reliance on bad sources & methods.
DeSantis said the House intelligence committee, pursuant to House rules, should vote to make the report publicly available as soon as possible.
“While the report is classified as Top Secret, I believe the select committee should, pursuant to House rules, vote to make the report publicly available as soon as possible. This is a matter of national significance and the American people deserve the truth,” he said.
“Rule X of the House Rules allows the select committee to publicly disclose any information in its possession after a determination by the select committee that the public interest would be served by such disclosure.”
According to House Rules, if the House intelligence committee votes to make the report public, President Trump would have five days to issue an objection. If he objected, it would take a vote on the House floor.
New Jersey hall of shame...Federal Government Intends to Re-Try Senator Bob Menendez and Introducing Senator Cory Booker...Garden State should be proud...
Not so fast, Bobby!
Last fall, New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez was cleared after a mistrial was declared in a case in which he was being tried for corruption.
Upon victory, Menendez was ebullient. He boasted that he’d get even with his political enemies after the botched case.
Not long after that apparent victory, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that he’d be pushing for an ethics investigation into Menendez. But, as we all know, congressional ethics investigations rarely amount to anything. So it looked like Menendez was going to get away scot-free.
That is, until now. The Justice Department announced today that they intend to re-try Sen. Menendez. Politico broke the story, and included a statement from the DOJ:
“The United States files this notice of intent to retry the defendants and requests that the Court set the case for retrial at the earliest possible date,” reads the notice, signed by Annalou Tirol, acting chief of the public integrity section. “Defendants Robert Menendez and Salomon Melgen have been indicted for bribery and corruption by two separate grand juries properly empaneled in the District of New Jersey. The first trial ended in a mistrial with a deadlocked jury. An early retrial date is in the best interests of the public, and the United States is available to schedule a retrial at the Court’s earliest convenience.”
If Menendez thought he was going to get away with his crimes, he has another thing coming. It looks like the Trump DOJ will be taking him back to court. This time, let’s hope they get a guilty verdict.
U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) Admits He Sexually Assaulted a Woman (REPORT)
U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) recently called on President Donald Trump to resign due to the sexual abuse allegations that were thrown at him during the 2016 presidential campaign. As Booker said in a rally in Alabama before today’s Senate special election, “I just watched Al Franken do the honorable thing and resign. My question is — why isn’t Donald Trump doing the same thing? Who has more serious allegations against him, with more women who have come forward?”
Now, new information has resurfaced that reportedly shows Booker admitting publicly, in 1992, that he sexually assaulted a woman!
As GotNews.com reports, Booker wrote a column for the Stanford Daily as a masters student at Standford University. The op-ed, entitled “So Much for Stealing Second,” shows Booker telling a personal story in the hope that it would be the “most powerful way to make a point” and “to make people think.” Booker added, “When I hesitated in writing this column, I realized I was basking in hypocrisy. So I chose to write and risk.”
The column goes on to describe Booker on New Year’s Eve in 1984 where he grabbed a friend’s breast on a bed without her permission. Booker, who was 15-years-old at the time, said, “I remember debating my next ‘move’ as if it were a chess game.” Whoa!
Booker recalled, “I slowly reached for her breast. After having my hand pushed away once, I reached my ‘mark.’”
This story shows that Booker grabbed a woman without her consent. To make the situation worse, the woman was so intoxicated from alcohol that she didn’t know what was going on.
According to Got News, “Booker used the rest of the piece to offer the rest of the Stanford community advice on sexual attitudes, consent, rape, and gender dynamics.” But this is Booker openly admitting he abused a helpless woman. This type of treatment of women is unacceptable.
Please share this with your friends on Facebook and Twitter. Cory Booker sexually assaulted a woman and needs to resign!
You would think the sky was falling, judging by the hysteria and hand-wringing shown by the mainstream media over the last several days.
Networks like CNN dedicated hours of airtime to sanctimoniously lecture Donald Trump — and America — about how shocking it was for him to use a bluntly accurate word during a closed-door meeting.
At the same time, of course, they repeated the same “rude” word over and over, even directly using it to describe the president of the United States. Now, it looks like the entire pandering kerfuffle may have been for naught.
Several lawmakers who were in the meeting on immigration have denied that Trump even said the infamous “s**thole” word — and now a person in one of the most respected positions in Washington has stated under oath that she never heard the president utter the phrase.
“During Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen said she did not hear President Donald Trumpuse the incendiary language,” reported Independent Journal Review.
“When asked if the president referred to Haiti and African nations as ‘s**thole countries’ during an immigration meeting at the White House, Nielsen replied: ‘I did not hear that word used,'” continued the report.
It’s worth reiterating that Nielsen was under oath at the time, and has no good reason to risk her entire career over making a false claim.
It is also important to point out that CNN and the rest of the media constantly reported Trump’s alleged word as total fact, calling him a racist without waiting for confirmation or even considering that they might be spreading hearsay instead of truth.
“The conversation was very impassioned. I don’t dispute that the president was using tough language. Others in the room were also using tough language,” Secretary Nielsen explained, while still denying that she ever heard the “s**thole” comment.
“The conversation was very impassioned. I don’t dispute that the president was using tough language. Others in the room were also using tough language,” Secretary Nielsen explained, while still denying that she ever heard the “s**thole” comment.
Other people present in the meeting, including U.S. Army Ranger and Iraq veteran Rep. Tom Cotton, have also denied hearing Trump say the word in question.
Cotton directly called out one of the few lawmakers who made the claim, Democrat Dick Durbin. The Republican criticized Durbin as having “a history of misrepresenting what happens in White House meetings,” according to IJR.
President Trump himself has acknowledged that he used rough language during the heated meeting, but said that he did not use the word being repeated by the media, and certainly did not mean to slight people or races. He was referring to troubled and crime-ridden locations.
At the end of the day, that’s the real point to this entire “scandal”: Regardless of the specific words used in the meeting, there is no denying that places like Haiti and El Salvador do have deep problems.
No honest person disputes that there is truth to what Trump was trying to say, yet the media has flown into a fit of faux outrage because someone dared to say out loud what everyone already knew.
There’s nothing “racist” about wanting to make sure that the people accepted into America are the most prepared for success, able to quickly assimilate, and ready to boost the country instead of becoming a burden.
Wishing to aid people in places like Haiti or Africa is noble, but ignoring reality helps nobody. There are places in the world that are dangerous, excremental messes — and no matter what word you use, the truth can be seen by anyone who actually looks.
First Class dufus…Genius Feinstein says People Will Die if Government Shuts Down But I Might Vote to Shut It Down Anyway
Katie Pavlich
Katie Pavlich
Yesterday Democrats admitted their goal is to shut down the government in an effort to use the move against Republicans for the 2018-midterm elections.
NBC Politics ✔@NBCPoliticsJUST IN: Democrats have enough votes to block the spending bill in the Senate and prevent Republicans from keeping the government up and running, senior Democratic aide tells @NBCNews
3:50 PM - Jan 18, 2018
Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein issued a dire warning Thursday evening that a government shutdown will lead to people dying (not true) and other terrible things.
"Shutting down the government is a very serious thing. People die, accidents happen. You don't know. Necessary functions can cease," Feinstein told CNN. "There is no specific list you can look at and make a judgment: 'Well everything is going to be just fine.' You can't make that judgment. So, I think it's a last resort. And I'm really hopeful we don't get to it."
That claim is interesting, considering she doesn't know yet whether she will vote to keep the government open.
“I don’t know how I would vote right now on a CR, OK?” she said in the same interview.
If people really are going to die as a result of the pending shutdown, you'd think she'd know by now how important her decision is. Instead, her politically motivated posturing and demagoguery on the issue just became extremely transparent.
Meanwhile, Budget Director Mick Mulvaney called Democrats on their bluff this morning at the White House and President Trump has asked Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for a meeting this afternoon.
"OMB is preparing for what we're calling the Schumer Shutdown. It still surprises me, and I've been through some of these before, that Democrats are opposing a bill they don't oppose. They are for clean CRs, they are for the extension of the CHIP program. They don't oppose anything in the bill, but they are opposing the bill," Mulvaney said. "We do not want a shutdown, but if Mr. Schumer wants this, he is in a position to inflict this on the American people."
"Shutting down the government is a very serious thing. People die, accidents happen. You don't know. Necessary functions can cease," Feinstein told CNN. "There is no specific list you can look at and make a judgment: 'Well everything is going to be just fine.' You can't make that judgment. So, I think it's a last resort. And I'm really hopeful we don't get to it."
That claim is interesting, considering she doesn't know yet whether she will vote to keep the government open.
“I don’t know how I would vote right now on a CR, OK?” she said in the same interview.
If people really are going to die as a result of the pending shutdown, you'd think she'd know by now how important her decision is. Instead, her politically motivated posturing and demagoguery on the issue just became extremely transparent.
Meanwhile, Budget Director Mick Mulvaney called Democrats on their bluff this morning at the White House and President Trump has asked Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for a meeting this afternoon.
"OMB is preparing for what we're calling the Schumer Shutdown. It still surprises me, and I've been through some of these before, that Democrats are opposing a bill they don't oppose. They are for clean CRs, they are for the extension of the CHIP program. They don't oppose anything in the bill, but they are opposing the bill," Mulvaney said. "We do not want a shutdown, but if Mr. Schumer wants this, he is in a position to inflict this on the American people."
President Trump Makes it Easier for States to Defund Planned Parenthood
NATIONAL STEVEN ERTELT
In a major decision today that will be hailed by the pro-life movement as it participates in the March for Life, President Donald Trump made it easier for states to defund the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
After Planned Parenthood was exposed for selling the body parts of aborted babies, many states wanted to revoke taxpayer funding for the abortion company. However the Obama Administration made it difficult for states to do that by claiming federal control over Medicaid dollars even though States participate with their own taxpayer funds and the federal program.
Today’s decision by the Trump Administration makes it so states have more latitude and control over those taxpayer funds and can make decisions to keep them away from America’s biggest abortion company. Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services announced that the administration was rescinding an Obama-era Medicaid guideline that limited the way states could take action against Planned Parenthood.
Dr. Charmaine Yoest, the department’s assistant secretary for public affairs, told reporters that the Trump administration believes “it is essential to protect and defend the prohibition of Medicaid coverage from most abortion procedures.”
“This is part of the Trump administration’s commitment to rolling back regulations that Obama administration put out to radically favor abortion,” Yoest said. “Reinstating the pre-2016 standards frees up states to once again decide for themselves what reasonable standards they use to protect Medicaid programs and their beneficiaries.”
One leading pro-life group applauded the move.
“President Trump and his administration have taken a monumental stand for conscience rights and an important step toward getting American taxpayers out of funding the abortion industry, especially Planned Parenthood,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List.
Meanwhile, Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Elissa Graves told LifeNews she appreciated the action by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to reverse the Obama-era policy that forced states to make Medicaid reimbursement payments to Planned Parenthood, blocking state legislatures from prioritizing those funds for local community health centers.
“No American taxpayer should be forced by unelected Washington bureaucrats to pay for abortions. Medicaid dollars should go to local community health centers serving women—not the scandal-ridden billion-dollar abortion industry. In contrast to the Obama administration’s policy designed to reward the Big Abortion lobby, this rule empowers state legislatures to allocate Medicaid funding for women’s health. Upholding decades of federal court precedent and the bipartisan-approved Hyde Amendment, this common-sense policy solution will also help prevent millions of taxpayer dollars from funding Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business. We commend the Trump administration for its leadership in protecting women’s health and defending the sanctity of life,” Graves said.
The Medicaid program of taxpayer-paid health insurance for low-income individuals is a shared program involving both state and federal funding. States are required to put up a match to the federal dollars which varies by state and by program. In Missouri, for example, the average proportion is approximately 63% federal money and 37% state money.
Although states say they have a right to control their taxpayer dollars, the Obama administration disagreed, as the Washington Post reported at that time:
The Obama administration on Tuesday warned officials in all 50 states that actions to end Medicaid funding of Planned Parenthood may be out of compliance with federal law.
Federal health officials said the letter from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is being sent to all state Medicaid offices to clarify that terminating certain providers from Medicaid is only justifiable if those providers are unable to perform covered medical services or can’t bill for those services. The guidance emphasizes that states cannot target providers for impermissible reasons and are required to treat similar types of providers equitably.
“CMS is sending a letter to all states to ensure they have a clear understanding of their obligation to follow longstanding Medicaid law guaranteeing that beneficiaries have the right to receive covered services, including family planning services, from any qualified and willing provider of their choice,” according to Marissa Padilla, a spokeswoman for the federal Health and Human Services department.
CMS has communicated with the individual state Medicaid offices in the past, but this is the first time the agency has warned all the states collectively, officials said.
Despite what Planned Parenthood claims, some of its former employees say it does not separate the taxpayer funds from its abortion practices. Former Planned Parenthood director Sue Thayer filed a lawsuit, Thayer v. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, that alleges the abortion business submitted “repeated false, fraudulent, and/or ineligible claims for reimbursements” to Medicaid.
The Planned Parenthood abortion business released its newest annual report over the New Year’s weekend. The report indicates the abortion company made more money than ever before.
Although Planned Parenthood bills itself has a woman’s health organization, in reality it is little more than an abortion business. Multiple exposes indicate that it does not provide adoption referrals or prenatal health care for women, but it does more abortions than any other company in the United States.
The report shows that the abortion organization had a record income of $1.46 billion and the fifth highest annual profit—$98.5 million—in its history.
In fact the newest annual report indicates that Planned Parenthood killed over 320,000 unborn children and abortions. That is well over one-third of all the abortions that take place on an annual basis in the United States.
Fortunately, as a number of abortions continues to fall in almost every state in the country and in the United States and total, Planned Parenthood is no longer killing as many unborn babies. The pro-life movement has been successful in providing abortion alternatives to women who find themselves in an unplanned pregnancy situation and that is taking its toll on Planned Parenthood abortion totals.
Los Angeles Times journalists vote 248-44 to unionize
Los Angeles Times newsroom employees have voted to be represented by the NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
Journalists at the Los Angeles Times have overwhelmingly elected to form a union, a first for the 136-year-old news organization that for much of its history was known for its opposition to organized labor.
The union drive was launched publicly in October and culminated in an election earlier this month. Results, tallied Friday by the National Labor Relations Board, show workers voted 248 to 44 to be represented by the Washington, D.C.-based NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America.
“We respect the outcome of the election and look forward to productive conversations with union leadership as we move forward,” said Marisa Kollias, spokeswoman for Tronc Inc., The Times’ parent. “We remain committed to ensuring that the Los Angeles Times is a leading source for news and information and to producing the award-winning journalism our readers rely on.”
“We respect the outcome of the election and look forward to productive conversations with union leadership as we move forward,” said Marisa Kollias, spokeswoman for Tronc Inc., The Times’ parent. “We remain committed to ensuring that the Los Angeles Times is a leading source for news and information and to producing the award-winning journalism our readers rely on.”
Guild organizer Kristina Bui, a copy editor at The Times, said, “This was a long time coming, and we're all thrilled that this has finally happened. The newsroom has put up with so much disruption and mismanagement, and this vote just underscores how much of a say we need to have in the decision-making process. The newsroom is demanding a seat at the bargaining table."
A staff organizing committee of 44 Times journalists had urged workers to unionize in response to years of corporate turnover, advertising declines and cutbacks that have shrunk The Times’ staff from more than 1,000 in the late 1990s to fewer than 400 today. Organizers said they hoped to bargain for job protections, salary increases and equal pay for men and women, and they argued that executives of the Chicago-based owner are overpaid.
Management, in emails to workers, said a union would not be able to solve the fundamental financial challenges facing The Times and other newspaper companies, which have faced steady declines in print advertising revenue coupled with much slower growth — or declines — in online revenue.
Through the first nine months of last year, Tronc reported that print advertising revenue was down 17% from the same period a year earlier, while the company’s digital ad revenue fell 6%.
Tronc also owns the San Diego Union-Tribune, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and other daily and weekly newspapers. The union vote affects only workers at the Los Angeles Times and local Times Community News publications.
The NewsGuild, formed in 1933, represents 25,000 journalists, including reporters and editors at the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal. The Times is one of the few major U.S. newspapers whose journalists were not part of a union.
Union representation overall has been declining in the U.S. for decades — about 12% of American workers were covered by a union contract in 2017, down from 19% in 1987, according to federal data — but organized labor has made gains in the online media business.
Workers at digital news outlets Vox Media, Huffington Post and Vice Media have all organized recently and are now represented by the Writers Guild of America, East.
The Times had a long history as an anti-union organ. In 1910, a bomb placed by a man linked to a local ironworkers union destroyed much of The Times’ office at 1st and Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. Twenty-one people, including a Times editor and a telegraph operator, died in the blast.
Over the next several weeks, the guild will hold an election to select its officers and then bargaining over a contract will begin.
Supreme Court to hear case challenging Trump travel ban
by Melissa Quinn
The high court announced its decision to consider the case Friday, and they will likely hear oral arguments in April. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
The U.S. Supreme Court announced Friday it will hear a challenge to the most recent version of President Trump’s executive order restricting people from eight countries from traveling to the U.S.
The high court announced its decision to consider the case, Trump v. Hawaii, Friday, and the justices likely will hear oral arguments in April. A decision is expected in June.
Trump rolled out the third iteration of the travel ban last year, which restricted travel to the U.S. for foreign nationals from eight countries, including six Muslim-majority countries.
But the administration suffered a string of defeats in the lower courts. Two federal judges — one in Hawaii and one in Maryland — blocked the ban from taking effect in two separate decisions in October.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals then struck down the ban in a ruling last month. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals also is considering a challenge to the travel ban. It heard oral arguments in December, but has yet to rule on the case.
But the high court handed Trump a victory last month when it allowed the travel ban to take effect while legal challenges wound through the courts.
The ban enforces travel restrictions to foreigners coming to the U.S. from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, North Korea and Venezuela.
Trump’s two previous travel bans were also blocked by the lower courts.
House Investigation: Pakistanis hired by Democrats hacked Congressional computers
Bill Dickinson / CCLHouse Democrats hired a Pakistani ex-McDonald’s worker as their IT administrator in 2009. Soon after his hiring, three family members and his best friend also found themselves as IT administrators for the Dems, roles they were paid a total of over $4 million for over several years — a scandal in itself.
Not only was the Awan family overpaid and underqualified, but they were engaged in far more “nefarious” activities. The Daily Caller reports that House investigators found that Imran Awan, his family, and his best friend used their insider positions to gain “unauthorized access” to Congressional servers and potentially classified information.
Even more troubling is that Democratic leadership appear to have consistently downplayed the security threat to their members, “leading 44 Democrats to not conduct protective measures typically taken after a breach — including informing constituents whose personal information may have been exposed,” reported the Caller.
The House Investigative Report
The four-month House investigation reportedly found that as recently as 2016, the Awan family was “allegedly accessing the data of members for whom they did not work, logging in as members of Congress themselves, and covering their tracks.”
The House’s Office of the Inspector General summed up their findings in a presentation titled “‘UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS’ that ‘5 shared employee system administrators have collectively logged into 15 member offices and the Democratic Caucus although they were not employed by the offices they accessed,'” according to the Caller.
The Awans also installed Dropbox — a third-party offsite cloud storage — on two Democratic Caucus computers, which is against House rules.
Even after being discovered and told to stop, the Awans kept up their illegal activities.
Their behavior mirrored a “classic method for insiders to exfiltrate data from an organization,” and they continued even after orders to stop, the briefing materials allege.
There are indications that numerous members’ data may have been secretly residing not on their designated servers, but instead aggregated onto one server, according to the briefing and other sources. Authorities said that the entire server was then physically stolen.
The report also found that Democrat leadership lied to their own party, calling it all just a simple theft. As a result, the breach wasn’t reported as such — and critical security measures to mitigate damage weren’t implemented, including notifying constituents whose information was compromised.
Bank Fraud Allegations
As if all of that wasn’t enough, Awan and some of his family members have also been indicted on bank fraud charges. Awan wired close to $300,000 to Pakistan in July 2017, and was later arrested by the FBI as he tried to board a flight to his native country from Dulles International Airport in Washington.
His wife Hina Alvi had already left the U.S. months prior, with money she received from claiming medical hardship in order to withdraw from a retirement account.
Awan and his family stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in IT equipment, but according to Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King, this loss of taxpayer money is the least of their concerns.
“The American people deserve to know the truth to this; it is a big deal,” King told WND in the fall of 2017. “It’s not just $6 or $7 million, $120,000 worth of equipment here or there. The biggest thing is that the brothers, Awan’s wife and friend all had access to the private emails and electronic communications of members of Congress and all their staff.”
Awan and his family stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in IT equipment, but according to Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King, this loss of taxpayer money is the least of their concerns.
“The American people deserve to know the truth to this; it is a big deal,” King told WND in the fall of 2017. “It’s not just $6 or $7 million, $120,000 worth of equipment here or there. The biggest thing is that the brothers, Awan’s wife and friend all had access to the private emails and electronic communications of members of Congress and all their staff.”
President Trump’s First Year
Originally published at Fox News.
January 20 is the first anniversary of President Trump’s inauguration.
I have known nine presidents, beginning with President Richard Nixon. Of those nine presidents, the only one who was as effective as President Trump in his first year was President Ronald Reagan.
That judgment may surprise a lot of people because the opposition in the news media and among the left-wing “resistance” has been so strong and one-sided that they have consistently misrepresented and maligned President Trump and his administration.
This effort has produced a distorted, minimized view of what has been accomplished by this remarkably energetic and controversial Commander in Chief in the White House.
To understand the current distortions, remember what a year ago was like.
In January 2017, it seemed amazing that this businessman-publicist-marketer defeated 16 other Republicans for the GOP nomination and then defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the presidency.
It seemed equally extraordinary that he won the general elections in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. These were states which had consistently voted for Democratic presidential candidates in recent years. One could have made a lot of money betting on the entire trifecta going to Trump.
These achievements sent the Left into a state of shock. The day after President Trump’s inauguration, they organized mass rallies in Washington and other cities across the country. Left-wing protestors promised “resistance” to the so-called “imposter,” who they simply could not accept as President of the United States. At the rally on the National Mall, Madonna proclaimed, “I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House.” The crowd loved it.
Professor Allen Guelzo, the Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era and Director of Civil War Era Studies at Gettysburg College, commented that the last time we saw this depth of hostility and contempt for a president was after the election of Abraham Lincoln. The slave owners in South Carolina and other parts of the South absolutely loathed him.
One year after President Trump’s inauguration, the Left’s hostility toward him is even worse.
The White House Press Corps’ reaction to White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson’s briefing on President Trump’s annual physical was a perfect example of this hostility. The media’s antagonistic (and just plain stupid) questions proved the propaganda war against Trump was not going away.
After a highly-respected Navy Rear Admiral, who served as White House physician in both the Bush and Obama White Houses, clearly and explicitly reported to the media that President Trump was in excellent physical health for his age – and that he had completed a flawless cognitive exam – the White House Press Corps doggedly repeated ludicrous questions, clearly seeking to undermine the doctor’s assessment and skew his report to fit the phony narrative that the President is “unfit for office.”
This TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome), unfortunately, has become a major barrier to accurate coverage of the Trump Presidency.
So, in a highly polarized world of intense media hostility with overwhelmingly negative coverage of President Trump, how can we assess his first year?
The best way is to look at results and measure them against what candidate Trump said he would try to accomplish.
Trump promised to appoint conservative judges to the federal courts. With advice from Leonard Leo, Executive Vice President of the Federalist Society and remarkable leadership in the Senate by Mitch McConnell, President Trump has delivered Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, a justice dramatically more conservative than anyone Hillary Clinton would have appointed. Additionally, in Trump’s first 12 months, 12 Appellate Court Judges have been approved by the Senate. As Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) pointed out, no other first-year president has seated this many Appellate Court Judges in the 228-year history of the court.
Trump is also now, without question, the all-time champion of rolling back red tape as he has taken on the Washington bureaucracy and deregulating. Under President Trump, the Congress has eliminated 14 Obama-era regulations through the Congressional Review Act. The current estimate is that the Trump Administration is repealing 22 regulations for every new one it has created. This is a major contribution to economic growth and a big plus in implementing campaign promises.
Trump promised a new, smarter, lower-risk strategy to enable the military to do its job and defeat ISIS. ISIS has lost virtually all its territory at minimum risk. This is yet another promise kept.
Iran and North Korea must be considered works in progress. Neither problem has been solved but neither has imposed its will, as of this writing.
Announcing that the Israeli Embassy would be moved to Jerusalem is another campaign promise in which Trump followed through, and it doesn't seem to have caused any major disruption in the Arab world.
Trump’s instincts for rebuilding the American military are right, but he has not yet solved the problem of getting the Congress to pass the stable funding stream the military must have.
On the other hand, Trump methodically waged a disciplined 11-month campaign to get the large tax cut he believes the American economy needs if it is to grow faster.
The response of the American business community to the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has been more positive and more visible than anyone could have hoped.
He is also making good on his pledge to make better trade deals for America. Saudi Arabia alone signed as much as $400 billion in contracts with American companies during Trump’s visit to Riyadh.
As a result of President Trump’s economic leadership, the “new normal” of less than 2 percent annual economic growth is rapidly being replaced by estimates in the range of 3.5 to 4 percent.
At the same time, the black unemployment rate is down dramatically, and CEO and small business confidence are up dramatically.
The first year has seen some disappointments. Failing to repeal Obamacare was painful. Not even getting started on infrastructure has been disappointing. Failing to develop conservative solutions for poverty in America has been unfortunate. Allowing the symbolic language and arguments about race to drive people apart has been counter to the promise inherent in Trump’s Inaugural Address.
However, on balance, it is fair to say President Trump has already achieved so much that he rivals Reagan as an effective, focused leader, and we are incredibly fortunate to have him in the White House as our nation’s 45th President.
Your Friend,
Newt Gingrich
FBI’s FISA Memo Scandal is Big News, But Snubbed by Mainstream Media
By Andrew West
It seems as though Donald Trump’s drain the swamp ethos is finding its way into every nook and cranny of the corrupt D.C. machine, with new revelations regarding the FBI sending patriotic Americans into a tizzy.
The air of corruption in Washington has long hovered over the city like a wet stench, with dirty money and backdoor politics making for a wildly pungent aroma of filth. Much of the trouble has been instigated by the special interest groups who buy and sell congressmen and women as if they were low-yield stocks, creating phony bidding wars for the privilege of getting on board with corporate chicanery. What’s worse still is what occurs when these groups don’t get their way, and begin laying waste to politicians and programs that are in opposition to their often greedy goals.
Then, as if to make the entire system seem beyond repair, comes a story about the FBI and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, (FISA), in which a yet to be released memo shown to congressmen behind closed doors points to something far more sinister than Big Money bribery.
“Members of the House on Thursday said they viewed a ‘shocking’ classified memo allegedly detailing abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) by seniorJustice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigations officials in relation to the investigation of the Trump campaign and called for it to be declassified and available to the public immediately.
“’It’s troubling. It is shocking,’ Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) told Fox News. ‘Part of me wishes that I didn’t read it because I don’t want to believe that those kinds of things could be happening in this country that I call home and love so much.’
“’The facts contained in this memo are jaw-dropping and demand full transparency. There is no higher priority than the release of this information to preserve our democracy,’ said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), a member of the Judiciary Committee, which oversees the DOJ and the FBI.
“Another Judiciary Committee member, Rep. Steve King (R-IA), called what he saw in the memo ‘sickening’ and said it was ‘worse than Watergate.'”
The text of the memo has, as of this writing, not been released to the public despite an absolutely enormous campaign to have this revelation made public.
Twitter has even been accused by Reddit users of stifling the hashtag #ReleaseTheMemo – an egregious act that unfortunately lines up with the company’s more than apparent liberal slant.
You see, releasing this memo would draw harsh and unavoidable criticism to the DOJ under former President Barack Obama, and the FBI under his stooge James Comey, specifically as it pertains to their work to spy on and undermine the Donald Trump campaign in 2016. Again, this is something that many voters already believed what occurring based on other evidence uncovered during the election itself, and having the smoking gun revealed at a time in which the news media is under allegations of collusion with the Obama White House would blow a hole in the liberal voting base.
G’ day…Ciao…
Helen and Moe Lauzier
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