NeverTrump Clings to Russia Collusion Conspiracy Theory Despite Lack of Evidence

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The NeverTrump movement has gone from pushing allegations that Donald Trump treasonously colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 presidential election from its rightful owner Hillary Clinton, to pretending that his attempts at business deals in Russia, which were legal and the subject of widespread reporting during the election, are evidence of unspecified crimes.

The main barrier to the Russia-Trump collusion theory — an information operation that was secretly bought and paid for by Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee, spread by a compliant media, and weaponized by the highest levels of federal agencies — is the lack of evidence for it. But that lack of evidence hasn’t been much of an obstacle for either the so-called mainstream media or the leaders of the NeverTrump movement.

The news that former Trump attorney Michael Cohen pled guilty to a process crime was enough to convince them of Trump’s guilt, despite the lack of evidence. The guilty plea was reportedly related to Cohen lying to Congress about when he talked to others about attempts at a deal in Moscow. Yet the attempts at a deal in Moscow have been known for years.

In fact, a major reason anyone knows in-depth details about the Trump Tower Moscow plan that went nowhere is that Donald Trump, Jr. testified about the plans beginning more than a year ago, in front of multiple committees in 2017. Transcripts of that testimony were made publicly available last May. It’s unclear why some journalists and media activists are attempting to spin this information as shocking and new since it’s been public for months, even before this testimony. Here’s The New York Times talking about the Moscow Trump Tower in August 2017, for instance.

For the most recent hysteria, various pundits took information that had been public for years, threw some fresh wrapping paper onto it, and claimed that this public information, which clearly wasn’t evidence of treasonous collusion with the Russian government to steal an election from Hillary Clinton when it was initially reported, became new bombshell evidence because they finally managed to hear about it, despite touting themselves as experts on the matter since 2016. (Read more from “Nevertrump Clings to Russia Collusion Conspiracy Theory Despite Lack of Evidence” HERE)

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The Migrant Caravan’s Forgotten Victims

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There’s been a lot of talk about compassion to the migrant caravan at America’s southern border, but what about compassion for those put at a disadvantage by specious asylum claims?

In the ongoing debate about the column of migrants, those who are skeptical of the asylum claims being made and those who simply want a more measured approach to handling those claims are told that they have no compassion for people coming from Central America looking for a better life in the United States.

But if we’re really going to have a conversation about compassion, we need to get a few things straightened out.

First, unless those looking for a better life have either suffered or have legitimate reason to believe they will suffer persecution based on their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinions, they do not meet the legal baseline for refuge or asylum. Period.

Second, there is reason to believe that a majority of those claiming asylum from Central America do so with no intention of following through. According to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security regarding the migrant caravan:

The low statutory requirements and legal loopholes in our laws encourage aliens to claim credible fear at our Southern border knowing they will be promptly released into the interior with work permits pending the determination of their full claim. In recent years, data shows that more than 65 percent of asylum seekers at our border are from Central America – of those 89 percent pass their initial credible-fear interview. Yet, the harsh reality is that 31 percent of aliens who pass that initial interview do not even show up for their hearing, while a staggering 40 percent of aliens who pass their initial interview do not even file an application.

This suggests that too many of those who claim asylum while crossing the border appear to be using our asylum process as a fallback after being apprehended.

Third, having previously worked at a nonprofit that advocated for persecuted religious minorities as well as reported on the state of global religious persecution, I have seen firsthand the need for a substantive asylum process, because I have met the people it is meant to serve: Religious minorities from oppressive regimes, political dissidents, survivors of genocide.

Looking at religious persecution alone shows how bad things are worldwide. A 2018 Pew Research study shows that 28 percent of countries had “high” or “very high” restrictions on religion and 27 percent show “high” or “very high” social hostility to religion.

It is good that we have a means for people fleeing persecution to seek and find asylum on our shores. It’s awful to see the process for those legitimately in danger clogged by those who aren’t. Our asylum process should never be a plan B for those who seek to circumvent or break our immigration laws for economic benefit, especially when it puts the legitimately persecuted at a disadvantage.

It’s a simple fact (and one that both my colleague Jon Miller and I and have previously discussed) that resources are finite, and when government agents spend time sorting out frivolous asylum claims from economic migrants at the border, it takes up time and resources that could be otherwise applied to other applicants who don’t have the geographic advantage of being able to form a caravan and travel over land.

G.K. Chesteron once wrote: “The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone. Thus some scientists care for truth; and their truth is pitiless. Thus some humanitarians only care for pity; and their pity (I am sorry to say) is often untruthful.”

This is apparent in our ongoing debate about immigration. Compassion is important, but it can’t be separated from the truth of who needs our compassion the most. (For more from the author of “The Migrant Caravan’s Forgotten Victims” please click HERE)

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THIS Is Who the ‘Criminal Justice Reform’ Advocates Want Released onto Our Streets

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Everyone loves stories. I’ve written dozens of articles over the years tackling every aspect of crime, incarceration, drug trafficking, and the truth about the federal prison population, to debunk the widespread myths of the political class supporting the Soros-Koch jailbreak agenda. But facts, trends, and rational arguments covering every angle of this issue fall on deaf ears in the political class. Like good liberals, the pseudo-conservatives supporting “criminal justice reform” trot out sob stories about the guy who did nothing but take a whiff of marijuana and was supposedly locked up in federal prison for life. Well, if you want stories that more accurately depict who federal prosecutors target for long sentences, here is your man: Sergio M. Robles, aka Checko.

An article from Tuesday at the Chicago Tribune reads, “Gang member tied to 2 murders sentenced to 27 years.”

That is essentially the whole story of federal prison and the federal criminal justice system. Most of the people targeted by federal prosecutors on racketeering, drug, and firearms charges are hard-core gangbangers responsible for most of the urban warfare in this country and are often tied to murders or committed them directly. However, given how hard it is to land a conviction, prosecutors often hit them on drug charges instead. This allows virtue-signaling leftist groups as well as pseudo-conservatives to come and agitate on their behalf by obscuring their backgrounds and depicting them as low-level offenders. But there’s nothing like looking at a fresh federal case when we all know what happened, such as the case of Robles in Cedar Lake, Indiana.

Looking at the headline, your average person would say, “Twenty-seven years for two murders? Why not life in prison or the death penalty?

The reality is that he wasn’t convicted on murder charges. He was convicted on drug charges and RICO. Thus, this is the the type of case where agitators could come several years from now and declare outrage over locking someone up for 27 years on RICO and drug charges. But really, he was only targeted because he was a Latina Kings gang leader responsible for much of the murder and mayhem spilling over from Chicago into northern Indiana. The stiff sentencing allows prosecutors to get him off the streets. Obviously, those who only commit RICO and drug trafficking aren’t sentenced to this long. Just last week, a major Latina Nations gang member in Chicago was convicted on drug trafficking and 17 firearms charges! Yet he still was only sentenced to nine years, even though he is likely responsible for a lot of drug deaths. Why? At the end of the day, there was no murder.

“Checko” was sentenced to 27 years on RICO and drug charges because he’s a gang leader responsible for murder. Here’s the synopsis of the case from the U.S. Attorney’s office:

At sentencing, Robles was held responsible for participating in the December 2003 murder of Jonathan Zimmerman in Hammond, Indiana, and the May 2008 murder of Jose Cortez in East Chicago, Indiana. The Latin Kings suspected Zimmerman was involved in a drug transaction with counterfeit currency. Accordingly, Zimmerman was shot and killed by a co-defendant. Jose Cortez was shot to death by another co-defendant because the Latin Kings believed Cortez was a member of a rival street gang. According to documents in this case, Robles possessed a firearm in furtherance of the gang’s activities and was involved in a conspiracy to distribute 150 kilograms of cocaine and 1,000 kilograms of marijuana.

It’s important to understand that this was part of a broader prosecution of 21 members of the Latin Kings gang. Many of these gangs are fueled by the influx of illegal aliens and are responsible for the increased death toll in the Chicago area. These are not the exceptions, but the general rule, of federal prosecutions on drug and firearms charges. According to Texas’ Department of Public Safety, the Latin Kings are on par with MS-13 in terms of “Tier 1” threat level to Texas and are responsible for the distribution of drugs. This is the nexus of immigration policy, the drug crisis, and criminal justice “reform.” It is beyond Orwellian that at such a time as this, lawmakers are crafting a bill that will provide numerous sentencing reductions and early-release provisions to the people in federal prison responsible for the drug crisis and for the murder in major cities.

People with short memories forget that this how Reagan’s federal sentencing policies lead to a 70 percent decline in violent crime and homicide the following decade. All of these gangbangers engaging in firearms and drug trafficking were committing most of the murder, armed robbery, and aggravated assault. By having stiff sentencing for those crimes, which were easy to prove, prosecutors were able to deter or remove the violent criminals from the streets when it would otherwise be tough to land convictions on the more violent crimes. This is the big lie of those who say we lock up too many people for “nonviolent crimes.” They are ignorant of the federal system, as distinct from the state criminal justice system. The feds only go after dangerous people, especially in recent years.

Those engaging in small-time drug dealing won’t even be pursued by federal prosecutors, certainly not for simple possession. If someone is prosecuted for relatively low-level dealing, it’s because prosecutors believe they are likely responsible for mayhem in the city and are top gang leaders. That is what any good federal prosecutor will do.

Which brings us back to Checko. Ironically, the drug trafficking charge is actually pretty light, much lighter than the typical case we see in the federal prison and exactly the type that would get reduced sentencing and early release under the First Step Act. Yet he is a murderer and a gangbanger, which is why they threw the book at him. Someone who is truly a first-time offender already has access to multiple safety valves and would never be sentenced to anything close to 27 years.

This is the heart of the big lie underpinning the jailbreak movement. Chuck Grassley, Mike Lee, and many other supporters will trot out props of cases where people were locked up for 30 years on seemingly light charges. Yet they will never publicly release what is called the “presentencing report,” which is the document that the judge uses to determine the sentencing. This tells the full story of the life of the convict. If he truly was just a one-time, relatively low-level drug dealer, without evidence that he likely committed murder or a career of other harmful crimes, he wouldn’t be sentenced to such long imprisonment. Of course, there are always mistakes in any justice system, but for every one person over-sentenced, there are thousands of others under-sentenced or even unconvicted. These people never seem to trot out the victims of those crimes who never achieved justice.

So the next time you see the Gang of Jailbreak use a sob story as the poster-child of over-incarceration, just remember that the very gangsters fueling the murder problem in Chicago and the drug crisis nationwide are overwhelmingly the people prosecuted in the federal system on what they refer to as “low-level offenses.” In reality, these are the people whom Trump referred to as “animals.” (For more from the author of “This Is Who the ‘Criminal Justice Reform’ Advocates Want Released onto Our Streets” please click HERE)

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Backfire: How a Stupendously Ignorant Tweet from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Undermines Single Payer Healthcare

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Before we delve into her new “argument,” I’d like to make a point about why the conservative commentariat sometimes seems fixated on Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. First, she entered the national spotlight as a media fascination and darling — a young woman of color who shook up the Democratic Party from the left by defeating an establishment fixture. She wasn’t randomly plucked from relative obscurity by right-wing writers or pundits for sport; she was elevated by a mainstream media that loves covering, and sympathizes with, rising liberal stars. And please recall the DNC Chairman referring to her as “the future of our party.” Second, because of the attention lavished upon her, she has built a massive online platform. Among the dozens of newly-elected Democrats arriving in DC to serve in the next Congress, Ocasio-Cortez has, by far, the largest social media following. . .

. . .

She also pretended that an obvious spoof video was insidious fake news, and somehow ‘proof’ that Republicans are ‘scared’ of her, or something. And don’t forget the time she claimed Ben Shapiro’s offer to debate her was tantamount to “cat-calling.” In other words, she’s a lightning rod with a very large press and social media following — and she’s leaning into the role. Which is why when she says things like this, a forceful response is warranted:

This astoundingly false talking point is rooted in a story from The Nation, a left-wing magazine, which attempts to track the Pentagon’s various accounting maneuvers, gimmicks, and tricks. Ocasio-Cortez, who either didn’t read the piece or lacks basic reading comprehension skills, gives her followers the distinct impression that by merely recouping $21 trillion in military accounting errors, the US government could fund two-thirds of “Medicare for All,” i.e., single payer healthcare (reminders: existing Medicare is going insolvent, and the realistic ten-year price tag for single payer is closer to $40 Trillion). This represents a distortion so ludicrous that it can be comprehensively debunked from multiple angles, starting with this one:

(Read more from “Backfire: How a Stupendously Ignorant Tweet from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Undermines Single Payer Healthcare” HERE)

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Criminal Complaint Filed Against Mueller

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Conservative author Jerome Corsi is aiming to take Robert Mueller to court, claiming the special counsel’s investigators tried to coerce him into giving “false testimony” against President Trump. The complaint is addressed to law enforcement leaders like Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, D.C.’s U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu and the Bar Disciplinary Counsel. Corsi wants the Department of Justice to open criminal and ethics probes into Mueller and his staff.

“Special Counsel Mueller and his prosecutorial staff should respectfully be removed from his office and their practice of the law and a new Special Counsel appointed who respects and will obey common and accepted norms of professional ethics and the law and who will promptly conclude the so-called Russian collusion investigation which had been illegally and criminally spinning out of control,” the complaint reads.

The “false testimony” Mueller’s team supposedly wanted Corsi to give concerned his relationship with Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone and WikiLeaks.

According to Corsi’s complaint, they wanted him to demonstrate that he acted as a liaison between Stone and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on one side and the Trump campaign on the other, regarding the release of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee.

The complaint states that Mueller’s office is now “knowingly and deceitfully threatening to charge Dr. Corsi with an alleged false statement,” unless he gives them “false testimony” against Trump and others.

(Read more from “Criminal Complaint Filed Against Mueller” HERE)

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Jeff Flake Holds Judicial Nominees Hostage to Mueller Protection Bill, Forces GOP to Drop Confirmation Votes

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By Daily Wire. The Senate Judiciary Committee has canceled hearings on a list of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees after outgoing Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) pledged to vote against any Republican judicial nominee so long as the GOP refuses to pass a bill protecting Special Counsel Robert Mueller from any detrimental White House actions.

“The panel was scheduled to advance six Circuit Court nominees, 15 District Court nominees and several bipartisan bills on Thursday to prepare them for possible floor action over the next month,” Politico reported, noting that the nominees are all to key seats, and all could be easily pushed through both committee and the full Senate with full Republican support.

But Flake says he will not vote “yes” on a single nominee unless a “bipartisan” bill, which requires Mueller be fired by a senior administration official rather than by presidential tweet and would give Mueller an “expedited review” of his filing if he requested it, is brought to the floor.

On Wednesday, Flake and a Democratic colleague, Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), tried to convince Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to bring the matter to the floor. When McConnell refused, Flake voted “no” on judge Thomas Farr’s nomination to the Federal district court.

Now the GOP has been forced to cancel a vote on at least 21 lifetime appointments, even though they control the Senate. Flake is currently the 51st vote of a 51-49 majority, which gives him the power to stall any close contests. In the case of Farr, Republicans had to call in Vice President Mike Pence to break a 50-50 tie. (Read more from “Jeff Flake Holds Judicial Nominees Hostage to Mueller Protection Bill, Forces GOP to Drop Confirmation Votes” HERE)

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Senate Grapples With Consequences of Flake’s Vow to Block Trump Nominees

By Fox News. It’s not uncommon to discuss law in this space. After all, we report on Congress.

However, it’s rare that we discuss laws of physics here. In particular Newton’s Third Law of Motion: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Newton’s law details how force, introduced by friction, tension, gravity and magnetic fields trigger a polar and uniform reaction.

This week, the laws of physics can be fused with the laws of politics.

The Third Law of Congress dominated the United States Senate this week. The Third Law linked the investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller to the failed nomination of Thomas Farr to the federal bench. (Read more from “Senate Grapples With Consequences of Flake’s Vow to Block Trump Nominees” HERE)

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Getting Rid of Guns Really Cost Dick’s Sporting Goods

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By Daily Wire. Dick’s Sporting Goods is warning investors that its decision to remove certain “assault-style” weapons from its Field & Stream stores cost it dearly and may limit its future gains.

The sporting goods retailer was forced to confront angry shareholders late last week after its stocks tanked more than 4.5% and financial conglomerate J.P. Morgan Chase downgraded Dick’s shares, saying the company was “overweight.”

“Gross margin-driven upside appears less probable given 3Q’s performance, changing comparisons, and rising inventory levels,” an analyst for J.P. Morgan told CNBC. The same analyst noted that same-store sales for Dick’s outlets are expected to grow less than 1% even as the company’s inventory rises.

“The analyst pointed out that Dick’s same-store sales growth for 2019 is expected to be less than 1 percent after averaging 2.1 percent between 2011 and 2015. He also noted that while the company’s 25 percent Black Friday store discount will help boost sales, it will not boost margins,” the analyst continued. “Inventory levels, meanwhile, rose 1 percent in the third quarter after falling 5 percent in the first half of 2018 with inventory days estimated to return back to 2015-2017 levels.” (Read more from “Getting Rid of Guns Really Cost Dick’s Sporting Goods” HERE)

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Dick’s Sporting Goods Ban on Some Guns Dented Sales. but Weaker Gun Market Also Took Toll

By USA Today. While a decision to stop selling assault-style weapons in the wake of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting dented its overall sales, Dick’s Sporting Goods says that the dip reflects a broader weakness in the world of firearms

The nation’s largest seller of sporting goods reported that consolidated same-store sales were down 3.9% in the third quarter, due in part to double-digit declines in the areas of electronics and hunting.

The weak numbers come in the wake of the Dick’s decision in February to not only halt assault weapon sales, but to no longer sell guns to people under the age of 21 in response to the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which left 17 dead.

But broader trends also appear to have had an impact. After breaking records each of the last three years, the number of background checks conducted by the FBI for gun purchases this Black Friday was down 10 percent from that day last year. (Read more from “Dick’s Sporting Goods Ban on Some Guns Dented Sales. but Weaker Gun Market Also Took Toll” HERE)

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NPR Blatantly Lies About Donald Trump Jr.’s 2017 Senate Testimony

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NPR falsely claimed that Donald Trump Jr.’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2017 conflicted with an account given by a former attorney for President Donald Trump. . .

In fact, Senate investigators were asking Trump Jr. about a series of efforts to develop property in Russia, going back several years. Reporter Phil Ewing (reporter Tim Mak contributed to the story) conflates one of those efforts with another separate effort. That conflation results in the false news report.

A full 100 pages before the portion Ewing quotes, Trump Jr. explicitly contradicts NPR’s false claim when he gives a clear answer to the following question:

Q. It’s been reported that in late 2015 or 2016 when now President Trump was running for office the Trump Organization was pursuing a plan to develop a massive Trump Tower in Moscow. Is that accurate?
A. Yes.

A hundred pages later, the investigator asks if there was an effort by Felix Sater to “bring together a development in Moscow.” Trump Jr. says he believes there was an effort to work on that with Cohen in 2015. Asked if he knew about the deal, he says not much, but that it got to the point his father signed a letter of intent. He said he would provide a copy of that letter. Trump Jr. says he was aware of this deal “peripherally.” (Read more from “NPR Blatantly Lies About Donald Trump Jr.’s 2017 Senate Testimony” HERE)

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These Were George H.W. Bush’s Last Words

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The late President George H.W. Bush’s last words before he passed away Friday night were to his eldest son, President George W. Bush, who he spoke with over the phone.

James Baker, former chief of staff to the 41st president, told CNN that just before the president passed away, he spoke to his children and told Mr. G.W. Bush, “I love you too.”

Mr. Baker, who frequently visited Mr. Bush while he was ill, described his passing as “peaceful.”

“He used to refer to our relationship as big brother, little brother…that is a characterization I take as quite an honor. I consider him to be my best friend,” Mr. Baker told CNN on Sunday.

Mr. Bush passed away Friday night, roughly seven months after losing his wife of 73 years, Barbara Bush, in April. (Read more from “These Were George H.W. Bush’s Last Words” HERE)

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New Details Reinforce That the FBI Used Fake Pretexts to Start Investigating Trump

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The evidence continues to mount that during the Obama administration, the FBI used George Papadopoulos as a prop to legitimize launching its investigation into the Donald Trump campaign. While the FBI claimed it initiated Crossfire Hurricane on July 31, 2016 in response to reports that Russian-linked individuals told Papadopoulos the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton, that story seemed shaky from the start.

Since then, text and email messages between former MI6 spy and Fusion GPS dossier author Christopher Steele and twice-demoted Department of Justice attorney Bruce Ohr raised the possibility that information Steele fed the FBI through Ohr was the true justification for the the FBI targeting the Trump campaign. A Wednesday tweet from Carter Page gives further credence to the suggestion that the Hillary Clinton campaign-funded Steele dossier served as the basis for the FBI’s interest in the Trump campaign. . .

A second detail from this week’s reporting on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation adds further evidence to the fraud the FBI pushed in pointing to Papadopoulos as the basis for the Russian probe. Papadopoulos’ purported Russian connection was a Maltese academic named Joseph Mifsud, who supposedly told Papadopoulos that the Russians had dirt on Clinton. However, as I noted previously, in February 2017—more than six months after the FBI launched their investigation into the Trump campaign—Mifsud spoke at a State Department-sponsored function in Washington D.C., at which time the FBI interviewed him. Mifsud later returned to Italy and disappeared.

Contrast the FBI’s kid-glove handling of Mifsud, the supposed Russian agent, with how Mueller’s team treated a London-based academic named Ted Malloch. Malloch made news again this week when Jerome Corsi, a former bureau chief for InfoWars and WorldNetDaily author, claimed Mueller’s team wanted him to testify that he “was the conduit to WikiLeaks and Assange for Roger Stone, who in turn had been a conduit to the campaign.”

While Corsi denied contacting WikiLeaks’ founder, Corsi reportedly forwarded Malloch an email from Stone, in which Stone wrote: “Get to Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and get the pending WikiLeaks emails.” Corsi claims he never heard back from Malloch and had no contact to Assange. (Read more from “New Details Reinforce That the FBI Used Fake Pretexts to Start Investigating Trump” HERE)

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