Dan Bongino Explains the ‘One Key Thing’ the Declassified Carter Page FISA Application Will Reveal

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By Conservative Review. On Monday evening, President Donald Trump ordered the declassification of several pages of the June 2017 Carter Page FISA application and the public release of all text messages related to the Russia investigation from James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Bruce Ohr — without redaction.

“Ladies and gentlemen, here it comes,” Dan Bongino said, filling in for Mark Levin on the radio. The host of The Dan Bongino Show podcast predicted that the public release of these documents will show that the Russian collusion allegations made against Trump by the Democrats and the media are nothing but a hoax.

“You are going to see one key thing: that this entire case, from minute one, was based on one big, fat hoax perpetrated by people working for Hillary Clinton in the form of this filthy, disgusting dossier with not a scintilla of actual information.”

“If you believe in this, you’ve been hoaxed,” Bongino said. (For more from the author of “Dan Bongino Explains the ‘One Key Thing’ the Declassified Carter Page FISA Application Will Reveal” please click HERE)

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Carter Page Reacts to Calls to Declassify FISA Documents

By Fox News. Developing tonight, President Trump looks poised to finally declassify previously redacted sections of FISA applications against former Trump campaign associate, Carter Page. Joining me now with his very unique perspective on all of this including the Mueller investigation motivation behind it, former Trump campaign associate, Carter Page himself.

Your first visit on “Justice,” Carter, we are delighted to have you on. And so, I want to start and move very quickly through this. You have been through so much. We now know that liars and leaks and the liberals in the DOJ as well as the Department of the Justice want to frame Donald Trump in order to impeach him. . .

CARTER PAGE, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN ASSOCIATE: It’s like I often say, Judge Jeanine, it’s not about me, it’s about fixing the disaster that this has created for our country. . .

PAGE: I have incredible support from people that have been doing a lot of work, including Tom Fitton and Judicial Watch. People in Congress like Chairman Nunes and Chairman Grassley that have been doing so much to try to get the truth out there, and you know, you and your team at Fox. It’s been incredible. . .

PAGE: Judge Jeanine, it’s funny. When I was – Devlin Barrett from The Washington Post had a report about me having various interviews with the FBI in March of 2017. The following months, they kept having these various leaks which you are referring to, and I actually told them similar to what Mr. Manafort’s attorney said yesterday. He had a lot of security threats in various – he’s concerned about his safety. That’s exactly what I told the FBI that month as well. (Read more from “Carter Page Reacts to Calls to Declassify FISA Documents” HERE)

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ACLU Admits Deported Illegals Are Separating Their Own Families

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The ACLU has admitted that migrant parents in the “family separation” furor are deliberately leaving at least 114 children in the United States, says a court filing by the federal government.

The acknowledged abandonment of the 114 children and youths — plus the de-facto abandonment of up to 232 others — undermines the progressives’ media-magnified claim that President Donald Trump maliciously separated victimized families as they fled from crime into the safety of the United States.

Instead, the migrants’ decisions to leave 114 children behind highlights the migrants’ rational and reasonable plan to use the border loopholes created by progressives to get themselves and their children — either separately or together — to the United States’ job opportunities, free education, peaceful streets, and anti-poverty programs. . .

The number of children who are left behind in the United States likely may climb well over 500 as federal officials gradually repatriate the migrant parents of 1,985 other children and youths who have been reunited with their parents. They were reunited with their parents following Trump’s June 20 decision to end the April policy of detaining and prosecuting all migrants while sheltering their children at facilities run by the Department of Health and Human Services. . .

Meanwhile, the ACLU continues to blame Trump for “family separation” issue and to use the theme as a fund-raising and activist tool. On Sept. 15, for example, the group tweeted the claim that “The immigrant children taken from their parents by the Trump administration could go through the rest of their lives with a deep-seated sense of vulnerability.” The ACLU has also pinned this emotional Tweet from August to top of their Twitter account:

(Read more from “ACLU Admits Deported Illegals Are Separating Their Own Families” HERE)

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Revealed: Three Democrats Attended Private Dinner With Iran’s President and Louis Farrakhan

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Three Democratic congressmen attended a private dinner hosted by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in 2013, a new report reveals.

Reps. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, Andre Carson of Indiana and Gregory Meeks of New York attended the private dinner, along with Louis Farrakhan, a notorious anti-Semite who leads the black supremacist group Nation of Islam.

Iran is the number one state sponsor of terrorism, according to the United States government, which has listed the Islamic Republic as a state sponsor of terror since 1984. Rouhani was in New York for a United Nations meeting and held the dinner party just hours after speaking to the UN General Assembly.

Final Call, a Nation of Islam publication, noted the three Democrats’ attendance at the time and included photos of Ellison and Meeks at the dinner party. But aside from the Final Call article, the three Democrats’ presence at the dinner remained secret until a Wall Street Journal column revealed it on Friday. None of the three congressmen’s offices responded to The Daily Caller’s request for comment for this article. . .

The CBC held a secret meeting with Farrakhan in 2005, where then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama took a smiling picture with the hate group leader. The existence of both the meeting and Obama’s photo with Farrakhan remained secret until last month. A Final Call photographer said he suppressed the photo for 13 years at the CBC’s request, in order to protect Obama’s political career.

(Read more from “Revealed: Three Democrats Attended Private Dinner With Iran’s President and Louis Farrakhan” HERE)

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This Is How Chuck Grassley Will Proceed With Kavanaugh’s Accuser

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By Townhall. Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley detailed how he will handle the situation and accusations made by professor Christine Blasey Ford in a statement Monday afternoon.

“Anyone who comes forward as Dr. Ford has deserves to be heard, so I will continue working on a way to hear her out in an appropriate, precedented and respectful manner.

“The standard procedure for updates to any nominee’s background investigation file is to conduct separate follow-up calls with relevant parties. In this case, that would entail phone calls with at least Judge Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford. Consistent with that practice, I asked Senator Feinstein’s office yesterday to join me in scheduling these follow-ups. Thus far, they have refused. But as a necessary step in evaluating these claims, I’ll continue working to set them up.

“Unfortunately, committee Republicans have only known this person’s identity from news reports for less than 24 hours and known about her allegations for less than a week. Senator Feinstein, on the other hand, has had this information for many weeks and deprived her colleagues of the information necessary to do our jobs. The Minority withheld even the anonymous allegations for six weeks, only to later decide that they were serious enough to investigate on the eve of the committee vote, after the vetting process had been completed.

(Read more from “This Is How Chuck Grassley Will Proceed With Kavanaugh’s Accuser” HERE)

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Grassley: Feinstein Refusing to Cooperate on Kavanaugh Accuser

By The Daily Caller. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley blasted ranking member Sen. Dianne Feinstein for her handling of high-school-era sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

The allegations against Kavanaugh surfaced Sunday after his accuser, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, granted an interview to The Washington Post. Ford detailed how she sent an anonymous letter to Feinsten regarding the alleged encounter months earlier. Feinstein said she forwarded Ford’s letter to the FBI for review but never made the allegations public until stories began to surface around the letter itself after Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings ended. . .

The chairman explained that “the standard procedure for updates to any nominee’s background investigation file is to conduct separate follow-up calls with relevant parties. In this case, that would entail phone calls with at least Judge Kavanaugh and Dr. Ford,” adding, “I asked Senator Feinstein’s office yesterday to join me in scheduling these follow-ups. Thus far, they have refused. But as a necessary step in evaluating these claims, I’ll continue working to set them up.” (Read more from “Grassley: Feinstein Refusing to Cooperate on Kavanaugh Accuser” HERE)

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Terrifying Plea in Midst of Florence Devastation Saves 3 Generations Trapped in Attic

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By Conservative Tribune. Social media can be a major distraction in today’s world. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter seem to be magnets for trashy posts and endless arguments these days … But sometimes, the power of online communication ends up saving lives.

A last-resort Twitter post from one woman in North Carolina may have just prevented a tragedy. As flood waters rose during Hurricane Florence, Breeanna Perry used the social media platform to make sure that she, along with her mother and grandmother, could be found. . .

Perry said that she and her family had a difficult time evacuating because her mother is disabled and her grandmother is elderly. They made the decision to stay in their home to ride out the storm — and at first, everything seemed fine. . .

“I actually put my feet on the ground to go talk to my mom, and I start being shocked,” she said. “I realized there was water on the ground and we had to turn the power off and after that the water was just coming in within minutes.”

As her phone was running out of battery, Perry posted a tweet with her location and situation. (Read more from “Terrifying Plea in Midst of Florence Devastation Saves 3 Generations Trapped in Attic” HERE)

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Woman Trapped by North Carolina Floodwaters Is Rescued Along With Her Mom and Grandmother After Tweeting a Desperate SOS From Their Attic

By Daily Mail. Local emergency services were swamped with other cases in the deadly hurricane that has claimed 15 lives in the state so far, but eventually her Tweet went viral and got the attention of the Cajun Warriors.

‘If anybody could help… our cars is under water and so is our house stuck in attic. Phone about to die please send help to [redacted], new bern. NC,’ Perry – who graduated high school last summer – wrote. The message has been retweeted over 11,000 times.

‘I sent the tweet, I didn’t expect it to go viral,’ ‘I came back in the house, we still had power, and everything, every body was okay, we were just in our rooms watching TV,’ Perry told Fox Denver 31. . .

Perry and her relatives were eventually rescued at 6am that morning and walked half an hour down the road to reach evacuation buses. Kite later shared that the family had been brought to safety. (Read more from “Woman Trapped by North Carolina Floodwaters Is Rescued Along With Her Mom and Grandmother After Tweeting a Desperate SOS From Their Attic” HERE)

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She Comes Forward: Kavanaugh Accuser Is Revealed

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By Townhall. Well, it’s happened. The woman who alleges that Judge Bret Kavanaugh, along with another individual, attempted to sexually assault her while in high school has come forward. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) reportedly had a letter about this encounter since at least the summer, but sat on it. One could say that alone speaks to the credibility of the accusation. It was referred to the FBI later this week, and now the whole nomination process could be thrown into chaos. It’s messy. The whole situation could get ugly very soon and very fast, folks. Backward reels the mind to the Clarence Thomas hearings. The pressure is already building. If the person remained anonymous, that’s one thing, but she’s now come forward to The Washington Post. Her name is Christine Blasey Ford. She’s a research psychologist in northern California and a professor at Palo Alto University. Ford was a student at the all-girls Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, Maryland. The encounter occurred when Kavanaugh was 17-years-old. It was not revealed until 2012 during couple’s therapy, the Post obtained some of the notes from her therapist; Kavanaugh is not mentioned by name (via WaPo):

Speaking publicly for the first time, Ford said that one summer in the early 1980s, Kavanaugh and a friend — both “stumbling drunk,” Ford alleges — corralled her into a bedroom during a gathering of teenagers at a house in Montgomery County.

While his friend watched, she said, Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed on her back and groped her over her clothes, grinding his body against hers and clumsily attempting to pull off her one-piece bathing suit and the clothing she wore over it. When she tried to scream, she said, he put his hand over her mouth. . .

Ford said she told no one of the incident in any detail until 2012, when she was in couples therapy with her husband. The therapist’s notes, portions of which were provided by Ford and reviewed by The Washington Post, do not mention Kavanaugh’s name but say she reported that she was attacked by students “from an elitist boys’ school” who went on to become “highly respected and high-ranking members of society in Washington.” The notes say four boys were involved, a discrepancy Ford says was an error on the therapist’s part. Ford said there were four boys at the party but only two in the room.

(Read more from “She Comes Forward: Kavanaugh Accuser Is Revealed” HERE)

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Judge Jeanine: Feinstein’s Handling of Kavanaugh Letter Shows Complete Disregard for Truth and Justice

By Fox News. As a prosecutor, a superior court judge as well as elected district attorney. The way it works is you are innocent until you are proven guilty. Clear, unambiguous words etched in stone. Why would anyone ignore this truth, especially the ranking Democrat on Senate Judiciary, Senator Dianne Feinstein, is stunning. But you shouldn’t be surprised. The left is committed to the removal of a duly elected president, the destruction of our system of capitalism, and now an all-out assault on our system of justice.

To them you are guilty – guilty until proven innocent. But no one in all the years I’ve spent in courtrooms has ever been able to prove a negative. So forget the time-honored notions like due process, probable cause, beyond a reasonable doubt or a jury of your peers. Today, unsupported, uncorroborated, untested words, not facts are sufficient to convict not just in the court of public opinion, but in the esteemed hallowed halls of the United States Senate.

Forget the right to counsel, the ability to defend yourself, the right
confront your accuser or even cross-examine your accuser. Truth in this scheme is nothing more than collateral damage if a Republican is on the receiving end of an anonymous allegation.

So Dianne, let me see if I get this. Another Democrat, a congresswoman from California, no less, forwards a July letter to you containing a completely unsubstantiated claim that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh while in high school tried to force himself on another high school student almost 40, I said 40 years ago.

Kavanaugh for anyone who even cares has categorically and unequivocally denied the allegation. So why are we just hearing being this now? Dianne, when you get the letter, what do you do to make sure it’s real? That the person is even real? Given the left’s penchant to buy fake dossiers, make up facts and collude with the media to sabotage even the President of the United States, forgive me if I think it’s all hogwash. Okay, you say quote, “The individual strongly requested confidentiality, declined to come forward or press the matter further. And I honored have that decision.” (Read more from “Judge Jeanine: Feinstein’s Handling of Kavanaugh Letter Shows Complete Disregard for Truth and Justice” HERE)

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What I Don’t Like About Life in Post-9/11 America

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Life in a post-9/11 America increasingly feels like an endless free fall down a rabbit hole into a terrifying, dystopian alternative reality in which the citizenry has no rights, the government is no friend to freedom, and everything we ever knew and loved about the values and principles that once made this country great has been turned on its head.

We’ve walked a strange and harrowing road since September 11, 2001, littered with the debris of our once-vaunted liberties.

We have gone from a nation that took great pride in being a model of a representative democracy to being a model of how to persuade the citizenry to march in lockstep with a police state.

Osama Bin Laden right warned that “freedom and human rights in America are doomed. The U.S. government will lead the American people in — and the West in general — into an unbearable hell and a choking life.”

These past 17 years have proven Bin Laden right in his prediction.

What began with the passage of the USA Patriot Act in October 2001 has snowballed into the eradication of every vital safeguard against government overreach, corruption and abuse.

The citizenry’s unquestioning acquiescence to anything the government wants to do in exchange for the phantom promise of safety and security has resulted in a society where the nation is being locked down into a militarized, mechanized, hypersensitive, legalistic, self-righteous, goose-stepping antithesis of every principle upon which this nation was founded.

This is not freedom.

This is a jail cell.

Set against a backdrop of government surveillance, militarized police, SWAT team raids, asset forfeiture, eminent domain, overcriminalization, armed surveillance drones, whole body scanners, stop and frisk searches, roving VIPR raids and the like—all of which have been sanctioned by Congress, the White House and the courts—our constitutional freedoms have been steadily chipped away at, undermined, eroded, whittled down, and generally discarded.

Our losses are mounting with every passing day.

Free speech, the right to protest, the right to challenge government wrongdoing, due process, a presumption of innocence, the right to self-defense, accountability and transparency in government, privacy, press, sovereignty, assembly, bodily integrity, representative government: all of these and more have become casualties in the government’s war on the American people, a war that has grown more pronounced since 9/11.

Since the towers fell on 9/11, the American people have been treated like enemy combatants, to be spied on, tracked, scanned, frisked, searched, subjected to all manner of intrusions, intimidated, invaded, raided, manhandled, censored, silenced, shot at, locked up, and denied due process.

In allowing ourselves to be distracted by terror drills, foreign wars, color-coded warnings, underwear bombers and other carefully constructed exercises in propaganda, sleight of hand, and obfuscation, we failed to recognize that the true enemy to freedom was lurking among us all the while.

The U.S. government now poses a greater threat to our freedoms than any terrorist, extremist or foreign entity ever could.

While nearly 3,000 people died in the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. government and its agents have easily killed at least ten times that number of civilians in the U.S. and abroad since 9/11 through its police shootings, SWAT team raids, drone strikes and profit-driven efforts to police the globe, sell weapons to foreign nations, and foment civil unrest in order to keep the military industrial complex gainfully employed.

No, the U.S. government is not the citizenry’s friend, nor is it our protector, and life in the United States of America post-9/11 is no picnic.

In the interest of full disclosure, here are some of the things I don’t like about life in a post-9/11 America:

I don’t like being treated as if my only value to the government is as a source of labor and funds.

I don’t like being viewed as a consumer and bits of data.

I don’t like being spied on and treated as if I have no right to privacy, especially in my own home.

I don’t like government officials who lobby for my vote only to ignore me once elected. I don’t like having representatives incapable of andunwilling to represent me. I don’t like taxation without representation.

I don’t like being bullied by government bureaucrats, vigilantes masquerading as cops, or faceless technicians.

I don’t like being railroaded into financing government programs whose only purpose is to increase the power and wealth of the corporate elite.

I don’t like being forced to pay for wars abroad that serve no other purpose except to expand the reach of the military industrial complex.

I don’t like being subjected to scans, searches, pat downs and other indignities by the TSA.

I don’t like VIPR raids on so-called “soft” targets like shopping malls and bus depots by black-clad, Darth Vader look-alikes.

I don’t like fusion centers, which represent the combined surveillance efforts of federal, state and local law enforcement.

I don’t like being treated like an underling by government agents who are supposed to be working for me. I don’t like being threatened, intimidated, bribed, beaten and robbed by individuals entrusted with safeguarding my rights. I don’t like being silenced, censored and marginalized. I don’t like my movements being tracked, my conversations being recorded, and my transactions being catalogued.

I don’t like free speech zones, roving bubble zones and trespass laws that restrict Americans’ First Amendment rights.

I don’t like laws that criminalize Americans for otherwise lawful activities such as holding religious studies at home, growing vegetables in their yard, and collecting rainwater.

I don’t like the NDAA, which allows the president and the military to arrest and detain American citizens indefinitely.

I don’t like the Patriot Act, which opened the door to all manner of government abuses and intrusions on our privacy.

I don’t like the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which has become America’s standing army in direct opposition to the dire warnings of those who founded our country.

I don’t like military weapons such as armored vehicles, sound cannons and the like being used against the American citizens.

I don’t like government agencies such as the DHS, Post Office, Social Security Administration and Wildlife stocking up on hollow-point bullets. And I definitely don’t like the implications of detention centers being built that could house American citizens.

I don’t like the fact that police departments across the country “have received tens of thousands of machine guns; nearly 200,000 ammunition magazines; thousands of pieces of camouflage and night-vision equipment; and hundreds of silencers, armored cars and aircraft.”

I don’t like America’s infatuation with locking people up for life for non-violent crimes. There are thousands of people in America serving life sentences for non-violent crimes, including theft of a jacket, siphoning gasoline from a truck, stealing tools, and attempting to cash a stolen check.

I don’t like paying roughly $29,000 a year per inmate just to keep these nonviolent offenders in prison.

I don’t like having my hard-earned taxpayer dollars used against me.

I don’t like the partisan nature of politics today, which has so polarized Americans that they are incapable of standing in unity against the government’s abuses.

I don’t like the entertainment drivel that passes for news coverage today.

I don’t like the fact that those within a 25-mile range of the border are getting a front row seat to the American police state, as Border Patrol agents are now allowed to search people’s homes, intimately probe their bodies, and rifle through their belongings, all without a warrant.

I don’t like public schools that treat students as if they were prison inmates. I don’t like zero tolerance laws that criminalize childish behavior. I don’t like a public educational system that emphasizes rote memorization and test-taking over learning, synthesizing and critical thinking.

I don’t like police precincts whose primary purpose—whether through the use of asset forfeiture laws, speed traps, or red light cameras—is making a profit at the expense of those they have sworn to protect. I don’t like militarized police and their onerous SWAT team raids.

I don’t like Department of Defense and DHS programs that transfer surplus military hardware to local and state police. I don’t like local police dressing and acting as if they were the military while viewing me as an enemy combatant.

I don’t like government programs that reward cops for raiding homes and terrorizing homeowners.

I don’t like being treated as if I have no rights.

I don’t like cash-strapped states cutting deals with private corporations to run the prisons in exchange for maintaining 90% occupancy rates for at least 20 years. I don’t like the fact that American prisons have become the source of cheap labor for Corporate America.

I don’t like answering to an imperial president who operates above the law.

I don’t like the injustice that passes for justice in the courts.

I don’t like prosecutors so hell bent on winning that they allow innocent people to suffer for crimes they didn’t commit.

I don’t like the double standards that allow government officials to break laws with immunity, while average Americans get the book thrown at them.

I don’t like cops who shoot first and ask questions later.

I don’t like police dogs being treated with more respect and afforded more rights than American citizens.

I don’t like living in a suspect society.

I don’t like Americans being assumed guilty until they prove their innocence.

I don’t like technology being used as a double-edged sword against us.

Most of all, I don’t like feeling as if there’s no hope for turning things around.

Now there are those who would suggest that if I don’t like things about this country, I should leave and go elsewhere. Certainly, there are those among my fellow citizens who are leaving for friendlier shores.

However, I’m not giving up on this country without a fight.

I plan to keep fighting, writing, speaking up, speaking out, shouting if necessary, filing lawsuits, challenging the status quo, writing letters to the editor, holding my representatives accountable, thinking nationally but acting locally, and generally raising a ruckus anytime the government attempts to undermine the Constitution and ride roughshod over the rights of the citizenry.

Our country may be in deep trouble, but all is not yet lost.

The first step begins with you.

1. Get educated. Know your rights. Take time to read the Constitution. Study and understand history because the tales of those who seek power and those who resist them is an age-old one. The Declaration of Independence is a testament to this struggle and the revolutionary spirit that overcame tyranny. Understand the vital issues of the day so that you can be cognizant of the threats to freedom. Stay informed about current events and legislation.

2. Get involved. Become actively involved in local community affairs, politics and legal battles. As the adage goes, “Think nationally, act locally.” America was meant to be primarily a system of local governments, which is a far cry from the colossal federal bureaucracy we have today. Yet if our freedoms are to be restored, understanding what is transpiring practically in your own backyard—in one’s home, neighborhood, school district, town council—and taking action at that local level must be the starting point. Responding to unmet local needs and reacting to injustices is what grassroots activism is all about. Getting involved in local politics is one way to bring about change.

3. Get organized. Understand your strengths and weaknesses and tap into your resources. Play to your strengths and assets. Conduct strategy sessions to develop both the methods and ways to attack the problem. Prioritize your issues and battles. Don’t limit yourself to protests and paper petitions. Think outside the box. Time is short, and resources are limited, so use your resources in the way they count the most.

4. Be creative. Be bold and imaginative, for this is guerilla warfare—not to be fought with tanks and guns but through creative methods of dissent and resistance. Creatively responding to circumstances will often be one of your few resources if you are to be an effective agent of change. Every creative effort, no matter how small, is significant.

5. Use the media. Effective use of the media is essential. Attracting media coverage not only enhances and magnifies your efforts, it is also a valuable education tool. It publicizes your message to a much wider audience.

6. Start brushfires for freedom. Take heart that you are not alone. You come from a long, historic line of individuals who have put their beliefs and lives on the line to keep freedom alive. Engage those around you in discussions about issues of importance. Challenge them to be part of a national dialogue. As I have often said, one person at a city planning meeting with a protest sign is an irritant. Three individuals at the same meeting with the same sign are a movement. You will find that those in power fear and respect numbers. This is not to say that lone crusaders are not important. There are times when you will find yourself totally alone in the stand you take. However, there is power in numbers. Politicians understand this. So get out there and start drumming up support for your cause.

7. Take action. Be prepared to mobilize at a moment’s notice. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re located or what resources are at your disposal. What matters is that you recognize the problems and care enough to do something about them. Whether you’re 8, 28 or 88 years old, you have something unique to contribute. You don’t have to be a hero. You just have to show up and be ready to take action.

8. Be forward-looking. Beware of being so “in the moment” that you neglect to think of the bigger picture. Develop a vision for the future. Is what you’re hoping to achieve enduring? Have you developed a plan to continue to educate others about the problems you’re hoping to tackle and ensure that others will continue in your stead? Take the time to impart the value of freedom to younger generations, for they will be at the vanguard of these battles someday.

9. Develop fortitude. What is it that led to the successful protest movements of the past headed by people such as Martin Luther King Jr.? Resolve. King refused to be put off. And when the time came, he was willing to take to the streets for what he believed and even go to jail if necessary. King risked having an arrest record by committing acts of nonviolent civil disobedience. A caveat is appropriate here. Before resorting to nonviolent civil disobedience, all reasonable alternatives should be exhausted. If there is an opportunity to alter the course of events through normal channels (for example, negotiation, legal action or legislation), they should be attempted.

10. Be selfless and sacrificial. Freedom is not free—there is always a price to be paid and a sacrifice to be made. If any movement is to be truly successful, it must be manned by individuals who seek a greater good and do not waver from their purposes. It will take boldness, courage and great sacrifice. Rarely will fame, power and riches be found at the end of this particular road. Those who travel it inevitably find the way marked by hardship, persecution and strife. Yet there is no easy way.

11. Remain optimistic and keep hope alive. Although our rights are increasingly coming under attack, we still have certain freedoms. As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, we can still fight back. We have the right to dissent, to protest and even to vigorously criticize or oppose the government and its laws. The Constitution guarantees us these rights. In a country such as the United States, a citizen armed with a knowledge of the Bill of Rights and the fortitude to stand and fight can still be a force to be reckoned with, but it will mean speaking out when others are silent.

Practice persistence, along with perseverance, and the possibilities are endless. You can be the voice of reason. Use your voice to encourage others. Much can be accomplished by merely speaking out. Oftentimes, all it takes is one lone voice to get things started. So if you really care and you’re serious and want to help change things for the better, dust off your First Amendment tools and take a stand—even if it means being ostracized by those who would otherwise support you.

It won’t be easy, but take heart. And don’t give up. (This post originally appeared HERE)

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Believe in Something, but Only If It’s True

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I was startled to learn that Nike is making former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick the face of its next marketing campaign. Kaepernick, you may recall, was riding the San Francisco 49ers bench two years ago, not only during the national anthem but during the games, due to inferior play.

Nike and Kaepernick’s supporters are attempting to revise history at this point, claiming that he sacrificed his career on a matter of principle. “Believe in something,” the Nike Kaepernick ad urges, “even if it means sacrificing everything.”

But Kaepernick’s career as a starting quarterback was already over before he started disrespecting the flag and the national anthem. By the time he was benched, he was rated 28th out of 28 starting NFL quarterbacks. NFL defenses had cracked the code, and his brief honeymoon in the league came to a bone-jarring halt.

If I were looking for somebody to represent the Nike slogan to “believe in something even if it means sacrificing everything,” I’d probably lean toward Barronelle Stutzman, owner of Arlene’s Flowers in Richland, Washington. Mrs. Stutzman, 73, has served and employed gay people all her life, but that wasn’t good enough for Washington state’s grandstanding attorney general, who joined with the American Civil Liberties Union to sue the Christian lady because she refused to design floral art for a longtime customer’s homosexual wedding.

Or Jack Phillips, co-owner (with his wife) of Masterpiece Cake Shop in Lakewood, Colorado. The state ordered him to design cakes celebrating homosexual marriage, or get out of the business. He took them to court instead. After several years, he won a 7-2 Supreme Court decision this summer. The state has already trumped up another case against him. Phillips says that when he gets vulgar, threatening phone calls from gay allies, he takes it as an opportunity to reach out, and to pray for them.

Or Kim Davis, county clerk at Rowan County, Kentucky, who went to jail rather than comply with a federal judge’s order that she issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

But Nike has a business to run, and their ads need to appeal to the demographic that is obsessed with shoe brands, in some extreme cases to the point of homicide. And so Colin Kaepernick it is – a narcissist who used to be known for kissing his tattoos after touchdowns. His photograph in the ad looks like a mug shot: cold, malignant eyes and a prim, disapproving mouth.

You can bet that Nike did its due diligence calculations before this decision. They knew some of us would vow never to buy from them again. But they also know who their future buyers are. They’re marketing to a demographic with an average IQ of 85 or less, and a chip on its collective shoulder. Criminal subculture “street cred” is golden marketing. Cop-killing is not a deal-killer in this market. Nike stock has spiked since the decision.

At first, Kaepernick just remained seated on the bench during the anthem. I thought maybe he just wanted to make sure he got a good spot, because he was going to spend the rest of the game there. But when a reporter questioned him about it, he mumbled something about police shootings of Black men.

Kaepernick has displayed socks depicting police as pigs, and has donated $25 thousand to a Chicago-based organization – Assata’s Daughters – that honored cop-killer Joanne Chesimard. Joanne took a revolutionary name, Assata Shakur. She was convicted of first-degree murder in the shooting death of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Forester, but later escaped from prison and is living in Cuba under the protection of Raoul Castro.

Kaepernick has worn Che Guevara shirts. It’s no hyperbole to say that he hates police, and he hates America. But former teammate Eric Reid was more publicity-savvy than the sullen, inarticulate Kaepernick. He convinced Kaepernick to join him in kneeling during the anthem instead of sitting on the bench. Reid said kneeling is the equivalent of flying the flag at half staff to acknowledge a tragedy.

And kneeling did catch the imagination of NFL players, mostly but not exclusively Black, and their media chroniclers. They wanted to have it both ways: they wanted to protest during the national anthem, but they insisted they were as patriotic as people who honor the flag and the anthem. It’s an absurd claim.

It’s certainly possible to protest and still be a patriot. In fact, love of country sometimes demands that you protest. And it’s an explicit Constitutional right. But when you protest during the national anthem, you’re showing contempt for what holds us together, what makes us care about people who are otherwise unconnected to us. It’s disrespectful, not persuasive, to make a spectacle of your complaints during the national anthem. We care less – not more – about your grievances if you think you owe our mutual national identity no loyalty.

Sherry Graham-Potter, the widow of an Arizona deputy sheriff killed in the line of duty, wrote an open letter to Nike after they announced their decision to line America’s highways with billboards of the cop-hating Kaepernick’s dead glare. She raised the objections that you would expect from a fallen police officer’s widow, but she also returned to a point that is rarely mentioned anymore: the cop-haters’ central accusation “has been proven false time and time again, in study after study.”

Does the truth matter to Kaepernick or Reid or Nike shareholders? It’s simply not true that unarmed Black men are disproportionately shot down by police.

Liberal college professors and the liberal Washington Post have dug into the data on this subject, and have admitted in the end that there is no statistical support for the claim that police shoot unarmed Black men more than they shoot unarmed white or Hispanic men. In one recent year, police officers were 18 times more likely to be killed by Black men than unarmed Black men were to be killed by police officers. It’s shameful to accuse somebody of homicidal racism if it’s not true. Just stop.

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Afghanistan Is Un-Winnable

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Carl von Clausewitz, 19th century military theorist, stressed the importance of knowing your enemy: “The first, the supreme, the most far-reaching act of judgment that the statesman and commander have to make is to establish … the kind of war on which they are embarking; neither mistaking it for, nor trying to turn it into, something that is alien to its nature.”

For 17 years, we wrongly applied counterinsurgency doctrine to a proxy war waged by Pakistan against the United States and Afghanistan. That approach was never a winning strategy as long as Pakistan controlled the supply of our troops in landlocked Afghanistan and regulated the operational tempo through its proxy army, the Taliban, who has maintained an extensive recruiting, training and financial support infrastructure inside Pakistan and immune to attack.

An American withdrawal will only be a humiliating defeat if the United States is forced into strategic retreat from South Asia because we do not have a plan in place to address the changing regional conditions in a post-U.S. Afghanistan.

I have written and spoken extensively about China orchestrating a strategic shift in South Asia working closely with Pakistan, Russia and Iran.

That geopolitical plan cannot succeed without the removal of the U.S. forces and influence from Afghanistan. China’s plan is for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to become the dominant economic driver in South Asia through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The Shanghai Cooperation Organization will be the controlling regional alliance led by China.

Although not stated, Chinese militarization of the region will follow to ensure “security.” In many cases, expect that militarization to occur initially disguised as civilian construction projects.

Nowhere has Chinese ambitions been more clearly and publicly articulated than in a June 2018 China Daily article by former Pakistani diplomat, Zamir Ahmed Awan, who works for the Beijing-controlled Center for China and Globalization:

New [Chinese] initiatives for peace in Afghanistan are welcome, and may change the scenario in the whole region.

I believe American think tanks and leadership, especially military leadership, [have] already realized that this war cannot be won. The only option is withdrawal, the sooner the better.

Pakistan can play a vital role in a sustainable solution to the Afghan conflict [controlling Afghanistan as a client state]. Complete withdrawal and an Afghan-led [Taliban-led] solution is the only permanent way out. Pakistan can facilitate an honorable and safe passage for U.S. withdrawal.

Peace in Afghanistan will allow economic activity between Central Asia, Russia, China and the Arabian Sea…It can change the fate of the whole region. Chinese projects like the Belt and Road Initiative and the objectives of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization [SCO] … At the recent SCO summit, the Afghanistan president was invited as a guest and observer. Hopefully, the country will soon join SCO. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor may also be extended to benefit Afghanistan in the near future if there is peace.

Since that article was published, China has offered to extend CPEC to Afghanistan; China will build a military facility in and deploy Chinese troops to Afghanistan; Afghan military personnel will be trained in China; and members of the Afghan Parliament have recommended that the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) between the U.S. and Afghanistan be cancelled, presumably to be replaced by China.

The only bargaining chip the United States has in peace negotiations is simply our presence in Afghanistan. According to the Voice of America, talks with the Taliban are stuck over the issue of the maintenance of U.S. military bases in the country. The United States wants to preserve two military facilities, Bagram Air Base and the Shorabak base in Helmand province.

The “presence” argument is tenuous at best. The United States should be identifying new forms of leverage, in the short term, to bolster our negotiating position, and, in the long term, as a basis of a new South Asian strategy.

The recently-announced effort to strengthen military ties with India is a step in that direction. The U.S. should also include measures to thwart Chinese plans for regional hegemony through BRI and its evitable military component. CPEC is the flagship of BRI, Balochistan is CPEC’s center of gravity and ethnic separatism is Pakistan’s major pain point. Both the Baloch and Pashtun resistance to Pakistani government oppression offer the opportunity to create greater leverage through the use of our own proxies.

The foundations of a new U.S. strategy in South Asia should be burden shifting and, when necessary, strategic disruption of our adversaries.

Lawrence Sellin, Ph.D. is a retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel, an IT command and control subject matter expert, trained in Arabic and Kurdish, and a veteran of Afghanistan, northern Iraq and a humanitarian mission to West Africa. He receives email at [email protected].

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Lisa Page Bombshell: FBI Couldn’t Prove Trump-Russia Collusion Before Mueller Appointment

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By The Hill. To date, Lisa Page’s infamy has been driven mostly by the anti-Donald Trump text messages she exchanged with fellow FBI agent Peter Strzok as the two engaged in an affair while investigating the president for alleged election collusion with Russia.

Yet, when history judges the former FBI lawyer years from now, her most consequential pronouncement may not have been typed on her bureau-issued Samsung smartphone to her colleague and lover.

Rather, it might be eight simple words she uttered behind closed doors during a congressional interview a few weeks ago.

“It’s a reflection of us still not knowing,” Page told Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) when questioned about texts she and Strzok exchanged in May 2017 as Robert Mueller was being named a special prosecutor to take over the Russia investigation.

With that statement, Page acknowledged a momentous fact: After nine months of using some of the most awesome surveillance powers afforded to U.S. intelligence, the FBI still had not made a case connecting Trump or his campaign to Russia’s election meddling. (Read more from “Lisa Page Bombshell: Fbi Couldn’t Prove Trump-Russia Collusion Before Mueller Appointment” HERE)

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Paul Manafort Could Flip on a Big Fish — but That Might Not Be Trump

By NBC News. Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, pleaded guilty to two counts in his new Washington criminal case, and admitted guilt in the 10 counts outstanding from his earlier trial in federal court in Virginia. The shocking part is this: He agreed last week to cooperate with federal prosecutors. A more accurate statement would be that federal prosecutors have agreed to “cooperate” him. As with most cooperation agreements, Manafort will have to “come clean” and be completely forthcoming with documents and information, and voluntarily testify in court.

If Manafort gives the government substantial assistance, the sentencing benefits are significant. The government will file a motion for a “downward departure” from the sentencing guidelines for cooperation, and for an additional reduction (up to three “levels”) for “acceptance of responsibility.” These alone can reduce the sentence by decades.

Many are suggesting Trump should be worried about this situation, because Manafort very likely could have impressed special counsel Robert Mueller with what he knows about Trump. It’s also been suggested that Manafort has ended up in the worst situation by waiting so long to cooperate. (Read more from “Paul Manafort Could Flip on a Big Fish — but That Might Not Be Trump” HERE)

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