‘The Oversight Man’ Explains Why Washington Doesn’t Change

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Just a couple of months ago, investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson profiled Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the Republican chairman of the powerful House Oversight Committee which was poised to dig deep on wide-ranging investigations into government mischief, waste, fraud, and abuse.

A few weeks later, Chaffetz abruptly announced he would resign from Congress. We asked the Oversight Man what changed his mind about being a lead watchdog with not only a GOP majority in Congress, but also a Republican in the White House. He told me it’s more a matter of what hasn’t changed. We started the interview with me asking how he told party leaders he was quitting.

The following is Attkisson’s Full Measure interview with Chaffetz.

Sharyl Attkisson: Some people might think this is a great time to be a Republican Chairman of an important committee because Republicans control the House, they’re the majority in the Senate, and they hold the president’s office. That means, you would think, that federal agencies can’t stonewall investigations of spending, waste, fraud, and abuse.

Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah: The reality is, sadly, I don’t see much difference between the Trump administration and the Obama administration. I thought there would be this, these floodgates would open up with all the documents we wanted from the Department of State, the Department of Justice, the Pentagon.

In many ways, it’s almost worse because we’re getting nothing, and that’s terribly frustrating. And with all due respect, the Attorney General has not changed at all. I find him to be worse than what I saw with Loretta Lynch in terms of releasing documents and making things available. I just, that’s my experience, and that’s not what I expected.

Attkisson: What were some of the investigations that this committee was stalled on that you hoped could be picked up now, that’s not been able to happen in terms of documents not provided by federal agencies?

Chaffetz: We have everything from the Hillary Clinton email investigation, which is really one of the critical things. There was the investigation into the IRS. And one that was more than seven years old is “Fast and Furious.” I mean, we have been in court trying to pry those documents out of the Department of Justice and still to this day, they will not give us those documents. And at the State Department, nothing. Stone cold silence.

Attkisson: To what do you attribute that?

Chaffetz: I think if we went to the senior most people, even the president himself, they would be pulling their hair out and they would hate to hear that but within the bowels of the organization, they just seem to circle the wagons and think, oh we just, we can just wait you out. We can just wait you out.

Attkisson: Republicans were very upset in the last few years over the IRS Commissioner, John Koskinen, who they said allowed destruction of documents and investigations and other things. This committee, I believe, even called for him to be impeached. He’s still IRS Commissioner even though Republicans are now in charge of pretty much everything. Why is that?

Chaffetz: Now look, you have more than 50 Republicans pleading with President Trump to release him, to let him go, fire him. Or at least encourage him to retire. No, he’s still there. No changes. Nobody was fired. Nobody was prosecuted. Nobody was held accountable. We tried to issue subpoenas, we tried to hold people in contempt and the Obama administration said, no, and the Trump administration came in and did zero. Nothing. Nothing changed.

Attkisson: Do Republican leaders have an appetite to do the kind of oversight that needs to be done?

Chaffetz: No, no. No, I mean the reality is, there aren’t very many people that want to play offense. There aren’t many people who say, look, we have a duty and an obligation to fulfill the oversight responsibility that was put in place at the very founding of our country. (For more from the author of “‘The Oversight Man’ Explains Why Washington Doesn’t Change” please click HERE)

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Canadians Could Be Jailed or Fined for Using Incorrect Gender Pronouns

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Canada passed a law Thursday making it illegal to use the wrong gender pronouns. Critics say that Canadians who do not subscribe to progressive gender theory could be accused of hate crimes, jailed, fined, and made to take anti-bias training.

Canada’s Senate passed Bill C-16, which puts “gender identity” and “gender expression” into both the country’s Human Rights Code, as well as the hate crime category of its Criminal Code by a vote of 67-11, according to LifeSiteNews. The bill now only needs royal assent from the governor general.

“Great news,” announced Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister. “Bill C-16 has passed the Senate – making it illegal to discriminate based on gender identity or expression. #LoveisLove.”

“Proud that Bill C-16 has passed in the Senate,” said Jody Wilson-Raybould, the country’s attorney general and minister of justice. “All Canadians should feel #FreeToBeMe.”

“[There’s an argument] that transgender identity is too subjective a concept to be enshrined in law because it is defined as an individual’s deeply felt internal experience of gender,” said Grant Mitchell, a conservative senator, in November 2016. “Yet we, of course, accept outright that no one can discriminate on the basis of religion, and that too is clearly a very deeply subjective and personal feeling.” (Read more from “Canadians Could Be Jailed or Fined for Using Incorrect Gender Pronouns” HERE)

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History Channel: CIA Used Prostitutes to Drug US Victims With LSD for Mind Control Project

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Your government will, indeed, perform experiments on you if it so chooses, and while some are undertaken with Nazi-esque malevolence — like the atrocities committed in the Tuskegee Study, a 40-year operation infecting innocent Black men with syphilis — others, like Midnight Climax, out the State’s utterly twisted flirtation with mind control.

Part of the notorious MKULTRA program, Midnight Climax — every bit as lascivious as one would expect from an agency founded in duplicity — might be one of the CIA’s most revealing experiments in thought control through substances, as well as its lesser-known entrée into the business of drugs and prostitution.

And now the corporate, mainstream media has finally decided to address the abhorrent crimes committed under the green light by nefarious CIA Director Allen Dulles — who signed off on MKULTRA and, thus, its iterations, on April 13, 1953.

One part in a series on the History Channel, America’s War on Drugs, reveals in documents and interviews how the CIA paid prostitutes to entice unwitting, working-class johns with illicit sex in order to dose them unknowingly with pure LSD — acid, lysergic acid diethylamide, one of the psychedelics exploding into America’s drug scene in the 1960s — for the project known as Midnight Climax.

Amid fears The Russians might perfect mind control before the United States government could manage to do so, the CIA turned unapologetically to experiments with LSD, leaving victims none the wiser — setting up fake brothels in San Francisco and, later, Marin County, where hired prostitutes would bring the agency’s prey: the unremarkable men of the lower and working classes who would be unlikely to retaliate if anything went awry.

“The CIA was scared stiff the KGB was going to get all this LSD and come over and start dosing people,” Richard Stratton, a former hippie pot kingpin ultimately caught and imprisoned, explains of Midnight Climax for a preview of the History Channel show. “So, we bought every drop of LSD in existence at that point.

“They gave it to George White, and let George White start dosing people.”

George Hunter White, a federal narcotics agent and covert captain with the CIA precursor agency, Office of Strategic Services, sought to develop or discover a substance with potential to control the minds of prisoners-of-war — a reportedly failed attempt to best the KGB — so they would reveal privy and classified information upon interrogation.

“American chemist Sidney Gottlieb was the brains behind White’s brawn,” Troy Hooper wrote for SF Weekly in 2012. “It was the height of McCarthyism in the early ’50s, and government intelligence leaders, claiming fear of communist regimes, were using hallucinogens to induce confessions from prisoners of war held in Korea, and brainwash spies into changing allegiances. What better way to examine the effects of LSD than to dose unsuspecting citizens in New York City and San Francisco?”

Stocked with booze and attempting to mimic a “French whorehouse,” rooms in the agency’s bogus brothels — replete with images of women in bondage and prints by artist Henri Toulouse-Lautrec — also came complete with two-way mirrors for operatives to kick back with martinis, watch the drug-fogged sexual activity, and scribble notes on what they observed.

“It was supposed to look rich, but it was furnished like crap,” a narcotics agent and frequent visitor to one of the elaborate brothels told John Marks, who authored, The Search for the ‘Manchurian Candidate:’ The CIA and Mind Control.

“An unsuspecting john would think he had bought a night of pleasure,” Marks penned, but would “go back to a strange apartment, and wind up zonked.”

Employing various code words and the sterile terminology to be expected of the CIA, agents recorded the encounters diligently — and although the bulk of those documents were destroyed in a purge of information on MKULTRA and Midnight Climax, seven boxes escaped the agency’s attention, surviving to provide insight into both those programs and the psychology of the agency.

One example, quoted by LewRockwell.com, states plainly,

Certain individuals [the prostitutes] would covertly administer this material [the drugs] to other people [the johns] in accordance with [White’s] instructions.

Knowing the prostitutes faced inherent risks in the operation and that the program could be derailed easily — particularly as its illegal nature might raise eyebrows around the agency and elsewhere — the CIA’s hired sex workers were not required to keep receipts or otherwise account for spent funds.

As such untenable toeing of the lines tends to do, Midnight Climax quickly devolved into an authoritarian operation, devoid of medical screening and care for its forced test subjects, and ultimately expanding to multiple brothels — and myriad drugs.

In fact, one of the first brothels set up by the CIA in New York City saw the program’s first tragedy — U.S. biological warfare specialist Frank Olson either leapt or was pushed from a tenth-story window in 1953.

Sans sufficient scientific controls and medical pre-screening, a 1976 Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Activities asserted,

Paradoxically, greater care seemed to have been taken for the safety of foreign nations against whom LSD was used abroad. In several cases [overseas] medical examinations were performed prior to the use of LSD. The [domestic] program … demonstrates a failure of the CIA’s leadership to pay adequate attention to the rights of individuals and to provide effective guidance to CIA employees. Though it was known that the testing was dangerous, the lives of subjects were placed in jeopardy and their rights were ignored during the 10 years of testing that followed Dr. Olson’s death.

Indeed, Midnight Climax failed — and miserably, shamefully so.

No employable tactics in LSD were discovered and no efficacious counter-intelligence operations or methods were ever derived — but the program, and its parent MKULTRA certainly succeeded in ruining the lives of many of the program’s unfortunate victims.

SF Weekly reported,

Testing of unwitting individuals was suspended in 1964 [after the discovery and outrage over the program by the CIA’s Inspector General the previous year], at least officially. Still, the CIA safe houses in San Francisco and New York City continued to operate for a year and a half longer. Scrutiny of the program intensified at CIA headquarters in Virginia, and subsequently the Bay Area safe houses shut down in 1965. New York City’s operation stopped in 1966. Intelligence officers conceded that the drug-testing exposed the agency to a serious ‘moral problem.’

Considering the wholly egregious manifestation of Midnight Climax — its mendacious premise, disgustingly manipulative facets, and the eagerness with which depraved operatives carried out their tasks — it’s a wonder the CIA managed to concede it had dismissed scruples to carry out these human experiments.

It must be noted that psychedelics, in themselves, are not necessarily harmful substances — it was the surreptitious slipping of LSD to victims without their knowledge and without medical screening or care which led to deleterious effects for an untold number of people which caused direct harm by the CIA.

Programs like MKULTRA might have officially ended decades ago, but given the current climate of heightened xenophobia, Red Scare-anoia, and ruthless and unforgiving domestic surveillance, it would be imprudent — if not foolhardy — to grant the U.S. government a clean slate of trust.

To wit — and to what should be the consternation of the American public and a remarkably inarguable cause for citizen vigilance — White, who died in 1975, later recalled of the odious attempts at mind control,

I toiled wholeheartedly in the vineyards because it was fun, fun, fun. Where else could a red-blooded American boy lie, kill, cheat, steal, rape and pillage with the sanction and blessing of the All-Highest?

(For more from the author of “History Channel: CIA Used Prostitutes to Drug Victims With LSD for Mind Control Project” please click HERE)

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Battle for the Permanent Fund and PFD Heats up as New Special Session Called by Gov. Walker

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Alaskans are facing historic decisions on the Permanent Fund and PFD that affect every citizen in the state. The Legislature’s plans to restructure the Permanent Fund and PFD for government spending remain on the table into another Special Session. And, another decision on the PFD is on the way in the Alaska Supreme Court with the lawsuit challenging Gov. Walker’s PFD veto in 2016 scheduled for a hearing next week, June 20th in Anchorage at the Boney Courthouse.

The lawsuit was filed last September by Sen. Bill Wielechowski and former State Senators, Clem Tillion and Rick Halford against the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation and the State of Alaska. The case hinges on whether it’s legal for the Governor to veto a law that provides an automatic transfer of funds that go directly to Alaskans. If the veto challenge wins, the money cut from PFD in 2016 by the Governor’s veto will be returned to eligible Alaskans – $1032 per resident.

Besides the Governor’s veto, the PFD and Fund are also under threat from the Governor and Legislature’s restructure plans that have not been approved by a public vote. In 1999, an advisory vote was held when similar restructure plans were proposed by lawmakers. The voters rejected the restructure plan by 83%.

As owners of the Permanent Fund, Alaskans’ input and approval of changes to the Fund system is critical to protecting the Permanent Fund from government spending and mismanagement. Clem Tillion, PFD lawsuit plaintiff and former legislator, commented on this in a recent video interview. He said, “Many people who’ve moved to Alaska and received the dividend don’t realize they actually own the resource. We are a land grant state, we received 100 million acres and the People own it. The Fund is yours. If you allow it to be taken away by politicians who want to change the law, then you deserve to lose it. You should have to fight for what you have (if you are able to do so). And the fight is now. Do not let the legislators steal your dividend.”

In response to these attacks on the PFD, Alaskans are taking action with a Save the PFD Rally next week (Tues., June 20 from 11am-1pm) in front of the Boney Courthouse, 303 K. Street in Anchorage before the PFD lawsuit hearing at the Boney Courthouse (1:30pm, 5th floor). Join this family-friendly, non-partisan, rally to defend Alaskans’ shareholder rights as resource owners.

For more information on protecting the PFD and Fund to share with your neighbors, visit Permanent Fund Defenders’ website at www.pfdak.com and Facebook.

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Do This If You Really Want to Save Trump From Impeachment

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I’m going to give those claiming they want to save President Trump from a potential impeachment the benefit of the doubt, although at times like these I seriously wonder whether such benefit should be extended.

I mean, when someone like myself, who didn’t even vote for Trump, seems more earnest in salvaging his presidency than those who shill for him, I have to wonder if some of these people really care about the country. Or do they just want the show (see that as clicks)?

Because advising Trump to fire independent counsel Robert Mueller is arguably the single dumbest strategic advice I’ve ever heard. Beyond it dragging Trump into a credibility war he cannot possibly win versus a man with an impeccable service record (whom the Trump administration appointed in the first place), it also incentivizes Trump to do more of why he has a historically low approval rating.

It’s the political equivalent of telling a friend trying to kick a meth habit, and struggling through withdrawal, to just take a little tweak to tide him over. (When that “little tweak” is what led him to being a junkie in the first place.)

But there is something Trump can absolutely do to make this all go away — at least in the minds of anyone who would even entertain ever voting for him. And he can do it right now, before Mueller issues a single subpoena or conducts a single deposition.

Trump can take a page out of the playbook of his old friends, the Clintons, when they were besieged by scandal, and simply govern well.

Back then, we caught a president committing a crime on tape. Yet most Americans simply shrugged and said, “Why should I care more than his wife does?” They did so because we were in the midst of a robust economic recovery, primarily fueled by the dot.com boom, when the economy was growing three times the current rate.

In other words, the people didn’t want to rock the boat while things were going well. That is especially so since that Al Gore guy would then take over, and he actually believes that crazy economy-killing environmentalist wacko stuff Bubba only paid lip service to.

Since then, the American people’s overall disdain for their political class has only grown. And their expectations for their politicians have eroded all the more as a result — to the point the character of our leaders is largely irrelevant now. Not even those supposedly Sola Scriptura fundamentalist Christians believe character counts anymore.

I don’t approve of that, and I wish that wasn’t the case. But I also wish I had six-pack abs, too. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in politics, it’s that you can’t change an environment any more than you change the weather forecast. So when the meteorologist tells you winter is coming, you can either howl at the monitor or equip yourself to thrive in that environment.

Instead of encouraging Trump to pursue a course of action that will likely end with him before Speaker Pelosi’s Congress pressing impeachment in 2019, supporters of the president should be urging him to use this cynical environment to his advantage. See, the vast majority of those who voted for Trump knew he wasn’t Mr. Virtue. They did so because the other damaged option, Hillary Clinton, would use government as the means to damage them as well.

This is the reason so many Trump voters aren’t moved by his alleged misbehavior. Most who voted for Trump aren’t in this because of his notorious cult of personality, but “because Hillary.” And when your primary investment in a politician is who they aren’t rather than whom they are, you didn’t really have expectations to begin with.

Thus, if Trump just does what he promised to do – repeal Obamacare, cut taxes, protect the border, and kill lots of terrorists – names like Comey and Mueller will simply pass into the Netherrealm of the comments sections of the lefty blogosphere. The rest of America will simply shrug their shoulders and say, “They’re all crooks anyway, but this one at least leaves me alone and kills the bad guys before they kill us.”

I want Trump’s presidency to be successful, regardless of my reservations, for he makes decisions each day that could determine our kids’ futures. If I wanted my previous NeverTrump stance vindicated, I’d just sit by and say nothing while he chose the road to political perdition, and then pridefully utter, “I told you so.”

However, Trump has done some good things when it comes to judicial appointments (I hope), the regulatory state, and foreign policy I’d like him to continue doing. But the odds he’ll get to do so decline every day his focus isn’t on good governing. (For more from the author of “Do This If You Really Want to Save Trump From Impeachment” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

“If We Knew He Would Win, We Would Have Stopped Him”

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This was the comment made by the lead reporter covering Joe Miller and his upstart race for senate, for the then little known, and financially unviable Alaska Dispatch, the night of the primary when Miller pulled off the biggest upset in the history of Alaskan politics, in Trumpian style, back in 2010.

The power, and sheer hubris of the media – had never been more on display – for those attuned to it, than in that race. To be clear- All the powers that be, the media, the left, the establishment GOP, the “deep state” – as it’s now referred to (those sitting in the bureaucracy taking an active hand against a populist or independent minded candidate), all had been taken off guard, and reacted with the full might of their power, doing all they could to sink his campaign in the general election. And, with some help from his own missteps and those of his well meaning staff of honest novices-none of whom, admittedly, had ever been on such a stage, against such seasoned foes- it worked.

It is fair to say, never had Alaskan politics experienced such an upset- and never had that upset been followed by such an assault, from all quarters. Page one lies, followed a week later by page seven retractions. Over an 8 week period of the general election, a count was done of the published articles on each candidate; 26 negative on Miller, 3 on McAdams (the Democrat) and 5, all favorable, on Murkowski, running as a write-in. The myriad of laws broken by state and federal election officials, the slanders by the media, and the betrayals by the party whose primary he won, are legion – too many to list here – but needless to say, the fix was in, and it was heaped on all sides, by all sides.

Fast forward 6 years – and on a much grander stage – a similar event takes place. An unprecedented and more importantly, unpredicted win takes place, and the pillars of power shake.

The response was immediate. The strategy predictable: discredit the win, disavow the mandate.

Never, in the recorded history of our national political scene, has the media, the left wing, the establishment right, and the “deep state” lifelong bureaucrats, all coordinated such a prolonged attack against a sitting president, over.. in realty, nothing..and yet, in a battle, essentially for everything. Make no mistake, the country’s soul is what is up for grabs, and if you do not think so, please take a moment to consider the stage that is set, and where we find ourselves.

A concocted narrative, with no facts, no evidence, and no proof, has dominated the last 8 months of American politics, and is all but insuring the failing of a legislative and executive agenda, which puts as it’s primarily goals, restoring peace and security to the nation and its peoples, and returning freedom and prosperity to the American body, and the individuals of which it’s made, as it’s central goals.

And that, is exactly the problem.

And that, is exactly the point.

The powers that be, on all sides, may not be “colluding” as is the new en vogue phraseology- but they all may as well be. They have a common goal, status quo- and thus- a common enemy: the President. More importantly – his agenda – but there’s more to it than that. A visceral hate, on all sides, because he is beholden to none of them, and this is key; none of them ordained him. In essence- his affront to their sensibilities is three-fold; his goals are in opposition to theirs (no matter what they say in the GOP), they did not create him, thus they cannot control him, and thirdly- they did not predict him, thus he disapproves their all knowing omnipotence.

The last, is the greatest sin.

You can never underestimate the sheer insult it is to the ruling class, when someone they don’t own, and didn’t create, beats their expectations. By extension their lackeys and sycophants in the media and academia are likewise injured, after all- they are the keepers of knowledge and the “knowers of all that is and shall be”, far be it from any citizen, be he small town judge, father of eight and decorated veteran, or billionaire New York real estate magnate and pop culture icon. If they don’t approve you, you don’t get in. If they don’t control you, you don’t get to make decisions. And most importantly – if your basic existence refutes the premise that they know all..

..you must be destroyed.

It’s that simple.

As we watch good men, like former Senator and now Attorney General Jeff Session, get drug thru the mud and have to defend baseless accusations that he should not be subject to…as we watch a media hate cycle feed itself it’s own stories 24 hours a day seven days a week…as we watch craven political operatives and elected politicians shiver with fear in the corner of inaction and cowardice- we may ask ourselves “Why?” And “How did this come to be?” To be be frank, the answer is really not that hard to discern.

For certain, there is money, lots of money at stake. Power, mainline power, the kind that money can’t buy- that is there, to be sure, all of that as well..and all of that has contributed to the decline of nobility of service and replaced it with the utter sleaziness of “job security”, but if you want to know what is really driving all of this, in a word, it is simply this:

Arrogance.

Not just any arrogance.

The kind of arrogance that believes a story shouldn’t be a story unless it was thought of or predicted in the minds of the journalists writing it weeks, months or years before.

The kind of arrogance that thinks the citizen works for the government, and not the other way around.

The kind of arrogance that thinks the powers that be should brook no insolence from the serfs and slaves that tend the fields.

And finally, the kind of arrogance that corrupts a man when he wakes up one day and thinks, not only does he know better than his neighbor how his neighbor should live his life, but that he should be entitled to compel his neighbor- thru force- to live his life accordingly.

At best, this arrogance is giving in to a weakness in all men and women- a failure to discipline oneself against base instincts and poor character temptation that tests us all– at worst, it is the embodiment of evil, and a desire to control ones fellow man, and see them all as merely extras, in the grand Play of ones life, to be moved about to for purposes other than their own, and not deserving of power over their own lives, instead of individuals, with thoughts and opinions and hopes and dreams, and as the only true masters over their own destinies.

It is this arrogance that we are, those of us who hold these beliefs the founders annunciated so well, have been fighting for for centuries. It is this arrogance that we confront now, in the face of the farce that are these hearings and investigations, innuendos and insults, and the attack on our intelligence that is the daily media and pop culture assault, on anyone who dare challenge this arrogance, and those who hold to its self centered axiom, and it is why we must continue to persevere.

This is the world when they have no true power. Full of lies, rumor, slurs, defamation, and character assassination. They are losing right now, thru the grace of God alone.

Imagine the world in which they win?

In the midst of all this, now more than ever, we cannot waiver. We cannot relinquish our freedom and our intellect. We cannot fail to resist. We cannot afford to lose.

______________________________________________

Dr Walter Campbell is a lifelong Alaskan, former Marine, and physician.

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

New Revelations Show Mueller is a Disaster, Intends Investigation to Kill Trump AND GOP

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Everyone is talking about the latest bombshell report from The Washington Post. Five anonymous sources with knowledge of Robert Mueller’s independent Russian probe claim that President Trump is now being investigated for obstruction of justice.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that this is the top story of the day – Memeorandum has collected more than 50 news and commentary outlets that have addressed the story. And it is a development that can radically alter the political environment in the country, to the point where the impeachment question steps out of the daydreams of partisan Democrats … and enters the realm of possibility.

“The move by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to investigate Trump’s conduct marks a major turning point in the nearly year-old FBI investigation,” the Post writes.

The FBI was previously conducting a counter-intelligence investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and collusion between Trump’s team and the Russian government. Impeachment was absolutely out of the question. But because obstruction of justice is a criminal charge, Mueller is now leading a criminal investigation into President Trump’s actions that began shortly after former FBI Director James Comey was fired.

From the Post:

The obstruction-of-justice investigation of the president began days after Comey was fired on May 9, according to people familiar with the matter. Mueller’s office has taken up that work, and the preliminary interviews scheduled with intelligence officials indicate that his team is actively pursuing potential witnesses inside and outside the government.

The interviews suggest that Mueller sees the question of attempted obstruction of justice as more than just a “he said, he said” dispute between the president and the fired FBI director, an official said.

Top administration officials to be questioned include Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats, NSA chief Mike Rogers, and former NSA Deputy Administrator Richard Ledgett.

Law professor Alan Dershowitz says it is unlikely any investigation leads to a Trump’s indictment.

“The fact that Mueller is opening an investigation on obstruction doesn’t answer the two basic questions,” Dershowitz told Newsmax. “One — can a president be indicted while sitting? And two — can a president be indicted for obstruction — which is simply doing his job being the head of the executive branch?”

“I think the answer to both of these questions is still going to be no and no.”

A criminal indictment is a matter of law enforcement. As the chief executive, the president of the United States has the ultimate authority on matters of law enforcement. Therefore, he is within his constitutional right to refuse to indict himself. (That’s Dershowitz’s point.)

Separate from the law enforcement issue, however, is a political question – that of impeachment. If the investigation reveals that President Trump obstructed justice, the House of Representatives can initiate impeachment proceedings and, if the House votes to impeach the president, the U.S. Senate will hold a trial.

That the Republican-controlled House of Representatives would vote to begin impeachment proceedings against a president from their own party is almost unthinkable. Almost. With elections every two years, the House is the legislative body closest to the people. That means the House is most responsive to the political environment of the country. Popular sentiment seems to be drifting in support of impeachment for President Trump, with almost half of Americans supporting impeachment, if a recent survey from Public Policy Polling is to be believed.

If by this time next year the criminal investigation into President Trump has turned up evidence of obstruction, bet on House Republicans to keep one eye on President Trump’s approval ratings and the other on November elections. Is it beyond feckless Republicans, who have already betrayed the president’s campaign agenda, to turn on the president if there is evidence of wrongdoing … but public sentiment against the administration puts GOP congressional majorities in danger?

Should the Democratic Party retake the House of Representatives in 2018, it is all but guaranteed House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi satiates the rabid Democratic base by holding a vote to impeach Trump. An impeachment trial in the Senate would also be politically advantageous for the Democrats, as they will vigorously campaign against any Republican senator who refuses to vote to convict the president. If impeachment doesn’t remove Trump from office after that, the 2020 election surely will.

Long story short: The news of this investigation is a disaster for the Trump administration and the Republican Party. Even under the best-case scenario for the administration, in which the investigation leads to absolutely nothing, the inevitable leaks of the probe’s developments will continue to distract from any accomplishments President Trump may have. Distract how? Look at the messaging from the president Thursday.

By responding to the Washington Post report, President Trump invites discussion of the investigation rather than discussion of his policies. Notice how Thursday’s executive order on apprenticeships has been buried by coverage of the Mueller investigation?

There is only one way out for the president and the Republican Party — the political environment needs to change. And the surest way to achieve that is to rally the Republican majorities in Congress back to the fundamental issues of Trump’s winning presidential campaign.

Restore the filibuster in the Senate to break the Democrats’ obstruction. Pass a full repeal of Obamacare and free-market health care reforms. Get the economy growing again with big anti-regulatory bills like the REINS Act. Have Congress use its Article III powers to rein in the courts and bring national security back to the forefront.

Public opinion will respond favorably to good governance, and good governance will persuade voters to keep Republicans in power … and end the question of impeaching President Trump once and for all. (For more from the author of “Mueller’s Trump Investigation Could Prove Fatal for Trump and GOP” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Why the Near-GOP Massacre? Look at Bernie Volunteer’s Facebook Postings, History of Democratic Party

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Yesterday, a left-wing Democrat decided to take the Left’s vicious narrative to the next level, opening fire at a group of Republican representatives and senators practicing for a charity baseball game they hold annually with Capitol Hill Democrats. Four congressmen, staff, and security personnel were injured in the shootout at Eugene Simpson Stadium Park in Alexandria, Virginia, across the river from Washington, D.C.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), the third-highest ranking member of the leadership in the House of Representatives, was shot, but fortunately he had two U.S. Capitol Police officers accompanying him – the only armed presence in the ballpark. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who was at the baseball practice, said that if Scalise’s security detail hadn’t been there, “it would have been a massacre.”

As of 5 p.m. Eastern time, Scalise was listed in critical condition at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. The lawmaker underwent surgery. According to updated reports, the bullet caused extensive internal damage and more surgeries will be necessary. Lobbyist Matthew Mika, who was participating in the practice, was listed in critical condition at George Washington University Hospital.

During a presser a half hour later, FBI agent Tim Slater acknowledged five people were shot, including the alleged shooter. A congressman and a Capitol Police officer suffered “secondary injuries” and were transferred to local hospitals and treated, he added.

The shooter, now identified as James T. Hodgkinson, of Belleville, Illinois, died of injuries sustained during his shootout with police. He was an ardent Democrat and Bernie Sanders supporter, who championed socialism. He volunteered on the Sanders presidential campaign last year.

Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) told reporters he encountered the man who turned out to be the shooter when he attended the practice. Hodgkinson asked him if the team there was Republicans or Democrats, Duncan said. The lawmaker says he told him they were Republicans and the man thanked him. Duncan then drove away and did not witness the shooting incident.

His wife says he had moved to Alexandria two months ago, but she did not explain why. Hodgkinson had apparently been living out of his car and reconnoitering the field since his arrival in the Virginia city. When his photo was published after the attack, Alexandria resident Stephen Brennwald recognized him as someone who regularly appeared mornings at the YMCA adjacent to the field where the attack occurred. Brennwald became suspicious of Hodgkinson, saying: “He never worked out. He never talked to anybody. He never did anything. He’d just sit there and stare at his laptop.” Brennwald said, adding that he often stared out the window, with “this kind of faraway stare.”

Shortly prior to moving, Hodgkinson’s Illinois neighbors also report that he had practiced shooting on his property but was told to stop by local police after the neighbors complained. Media reports state that Hodgkinson had been living in his personal vehicle in Alexandria.

A Facebook page in Hodgkinson’s name contained multiple posts demonizing President Donald Trump. The pages have now been removed from Facebook, but I was able to get numerous screen shots before that happened. Following is a sampling:

Earlier posts show his adamant support for Bernie Sanders and his hatred of the GOP generally and Donald Trump in particular. His most recent Facebook posts, from two days ago, suggest his mindset:

Hodgkinson’s twitter account is apparently @JTHInspections. Another one, @jimhodgkinson, may be a fake as the background photo has changed. Earlier it featured a picture of a younger Trump with Vladimir Putin photoshopped in next to him. Now it simply says “Trump is a pig.”

Are we really surprised by this attack? We shouldn’t be. The Democrats have been agitating relentlessly for just such a thing. There has been a constant, relentless drum roll of hatred toward the GOP, Trump family members, Trump cabinet members, and Trump supporters. Consider a tiny sampling of the outrageous remarks and behavior:

· Shakespeare in the Park: Donald Trump as Julius Caesar knifed in the back

· Kathy Griffin gaining notoriety with a fake beheaded Donald Trump

· Antifa communists physically attacking Trump supporters in the streets

· Leftist radicals torching UC Berkeley campus to protest Breitbart speaker, Milo Yiannopoulos

· Virginia GOP Rep. Tom Garrett and his family received repeated death threats · Arizona GOP Rep. Martha McSally, who was told “Your days are numbered,” by 58-year-old Democrat Steve Martan. “Martha, our sights are set on you”, he said, “Right between your f****** eyes.”

Former Secret Service agent and GOP candidate Dan Bongino says, “The Left has gone mad with rage… If it’s normalizing violence against him, if it’s using outrageous, outlandish language, if it’s making up false crimes against him like the Trump/Russia fairy tale, the conspiracy theory; they don’t care. They’ve lost any moral bedrock.”

Hodgkinson’s Facebook page contains one photo of himself. Interestingly, the one comment the photo received was from Lindy Lee, a former candidate for Congress, who gave the photo a thumbs-up.

Lee’s Facebook pages display a who’s who of the Democratic Party:

While there is no indication that Lee had any inkling of Hodgkinson’s intentions, and none is implied here, there is nothing new about mainstream Democrats aligning themselves with violent extremists. Indeed, as James O’Keefe proved in a series of undercover videos last year, violence and subversion is part and parcel of the Democrats’ game plan. Jamie Glazov of the Glazov Gang has produced a documentary about this propensity for violence entitled, ” United in Hate: The Left’s Romance With Tyranny and Terror.”

The most notorious case involves Jim Jones, an avowed communist and cult leader in the jungles of Guyana who in 1978 murdered his 909 followers (including 303 children), a U.S. congressman and four others before committing suicide himself. Prior to taking his “People’s Temple” into the jungle, he was endorsed by Democrat heavyweights. This included first lady Rosalynn Carter, Vice President Walter Mondale, HEW Secretary Joseph Califano, California Gov. Jerry Brown and his lieutenant governor Mervyn Dymally, five members of the U.S. Senate, 11 members of the House of Representatives, the mayor of San Francisco and one of the city’s former mayors, and the mayor of Gary, Indiana.

The fake news was at it even then, describing Jones as a religious extremist. In an article titled “When Religious Beliefs Become Evil: 4 Signs,” CNN characterized Jones as “a gifted speaker who built an interracial church in San Francisco that did much good in the community.” CNN never mentioned his avowed communism, atheism, and his close connection to the Democratic Party. Until his behavior became politically inconvenient, however, Jones was a leftist hero.

Forget introspection. True to form, the Democrats wasted no time in turning today’s shooting into a political issue. Terry McAuliffe, the serially corrupt governor of Virginia, offered a pitch for gun control, throwing in some massively dumb whoppers along the way. A mere two hours after the shooting CNN recorded him saying:

“There are too many guns on the street…”

and, are you ready for this?

“We lose 93 million Americans a day to gun violence…”

93 million!

Then he goes on to mention the need for “background checks” [Editor: we already have them], “shutting down gun show loopholes” [Editor: there is no such thing]… And he repeats the 93 million people a day claim again before ending. A reporter helps him by suggesting 93 million is a big number. McAuliffe corrects himself, saying it’s actually 93 a day.

If we want an explanation for today’s violence, look no further than the Democratic Party and its leftist agitators, attempting as we speak, to, in their own words, “make America ungovernable.” Their constant provocations and vilification create a justification in the minds of the many unstable among them who are already inclined to take matters into their own hands.

While Democrats have rapidly disassociated themselves from today’s events, their daily barrage of hatred virtually guarantees this kind of thing will happen again. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which specializes in fomenting hatred for conservatives, acknowledged today that the shooter “liked” their Facebook page. SPLC hyped a fake news story about Scalise and the KKK. This recalls Floyd Corkins, the homosexual activist that used SPLC “hate” rhetoric against the Family Research Council as an excuse for his attempted shooting rampage. FRC is still on SPLC’s Hatewatch list and SPLC has not apologized for its smear of Scalise. So much for Democrat contrition.

(The above article is exclusive to Restoring Liberty but a version of this report first appeared at Bombthrowers.com)

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REALLY MSM!? Special Edition: Scalise DESERVED It?

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RUSH TO LINK SCALISE TO “WHITE SUPREMACY” …

After Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., was shot this morning by a man who reportedly loved Bernie and hated the GOP, many in the media wasted little time in trying to link Scalise to white supremacists like David Duke. Ashley Rae Goldenberg noticed the disturbing trend and pegged the number of stories at “almost 1,000 recent results” on .

Here are some of the stories:

NY Post: Steve Scalise once defended himself against links to David Duke

Esquire: Some Background on Steve Scalise, the Republican Congressman Who Was Shot This Morning (Bonus points for calling Scalise a “hard-line conservative.”)

CNN: Who is Steve Scalise?

Washington Post: Who is Steve Scalise, the congressman shot at a baseball practice?

That’s just a small, but disturbing sample.

As Scalise remains in critical condition, news organizations see fit to highlight something Scalise apologized for doing, as if it had anything to do with why he was shot.

How about we take a step back – and not try to push a narrative – when someone is in the hospital?

MORE FROM THE MEDIA IN REACTION …

On the whole, media reaction to this shooting has been surprisingly mild in its overall tone. But, of course, there have been some absurd moments.

It’s the AR-15’s fault ­­… The U.K. Telegraph is quickly focused on a gun, not the person using the gun. They offered an explainer on the AR-15’s “long and bloody history in America.” Here’s more coverage from CR on the Left focusing on the gun.

Humanizing the alleged shooter … Much like after a terrorist attack, the media rushed to humanize the attacker. Multiple cable networks used this bizarre statement from an acquaintance of the shooter to do so.

WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN?

Let me know if you’ve seen something outrageous in the coverage by emailing me at [email protected].

(For more from the author of “REALLY MSM!? Special Edition: Scalise DESERVED It?” please click HERE)

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Comey Is The “Central Figure” in the Plan to Take Down the President of the United States

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Obama appointed Comey, as Director of the FBI. Comey let politics cloud his decisions as Director, and repeatedly did not operate the Bureau properly according to the rule of law.

Comey constantly engineered multiple misleading leaks to The New York Times that were a “violation of his FBI Employment and Non-disclosure Agreements.”

Comey said, in testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, that he leaked information in hopes that a Special Council would be appointed to investigate President Donald Trump in the Russian Scandal.

Comey, in a press conference, publicly “cleared” Hillary Clinton for repeatedly violating Federal Security Laws by transmitting over 2000 Classified and Special Compartmented E-mail on an unclassified server for 4 years.

Comey refused to publicly clear President Trump after he told many Committee Chairmen in Congress and President Trump three times that he was not under investigation by the FBI, or collusion with Russia in the election.

Comey followed orders of Attorney General Loretta Lynch to call the “FBI Investigation” of Hillary Clinton violation of Federal Security Laws a “Matter” and Comey did not write a memo to himself about what AG lynch said.

When President Trump told Comey ”hoped Comey could let the investigation of LTG Flynn go”; Comey said he felt pressure and in a double standard, he wrote a memo to himself about what president Trump said.

Comey refused to investigate the Criminal Money Laundering of hundreds of millions dollars by Hillary and Bill Clinton of the Clinton Foundation, that they set up in Canada to avoid having to abide by US Federal Laws.

Comey refuse to investigate the transfer of 20% of the United States production of uranium to Russia for $145 million payoff to the Clinton Foundation, and they were paid a $500 million fee for a speech that Bill Clinton made to a Russian Bank.

Comey refused to take action to identify the member of the Obama administration who unmasked LTG Flynn and over 30,000 other Americans including Donald Trump, the Trump Campaign, the Trump Transition Team, US Senators, US Congressmen, members of the Supreme Court, members of the Joint Chief of Staff, and subsequently the details of President Trump’s conversations with Foreign Heads of State.

Comey refused to reinstate the training and reference material about the dangers of the Muslim Brotherhood, CAIR, Radical Islamic Terrorism, and Sharia Law that once were referenced on FBI Computers and in FBI Libraries to alert and train Agents.

Attorney Session and the Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein took control of Comey’s files in his FBI Office and recovered a trove of information including unauthorized recordings of President Trump and others. That information is being reviewed by the Justice Department and will be turned over to the newly appointed FBI Director Christopher Wray who will initiate the housecleaning of the Comey Syndicate at FBI Headquarters; those individuals will be replaced by FBI Supervisor Agents who were not compromised by Comey, Lynch, Holder, Clinton, or Obama.

Former Assistant Directors of the FBI James Kallstrom, Bill Gavin, and Ron Hosko were glad President Donald Trump fired James Comey.

The three FBI Assistant Directors all said Comey sealed his fate after his July 5 press conference in which he improperly assumed the role of “a prosecutor” and recommended no charges be filed against Hillary Clinton for her egregious use of a private E-mail server to transmit highly classified messages during her tenure as Secretary of State.

“I’m glad it happened,” Kallstrom said of Comey’s firing. “I think Jim Comey way back almost a year ago kind of forgot he was the FBI Director.” “Jim Comey danced with the devil, and later on down the road talked about this great investigation the FBI conducted. The interview of Hillary Clinton, in my view, was a sham.”

Comey “threw the FBI under the bus, and the reputation of the FBI under the bus,” Kallstrom added. “That’s what I am very mad about and have been very mad about for a long time.”

Gavin said Comey’s firing was “something that had to happen.” “Jim Comey is a bright guy, but the bottom line is when he made a prosecutive opinion in an investigative matter he made a mistake,” he added.

The Integrity of the FBI will be restored by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and the 15,000 honest, dedicated, and hard-working Agents of the FBI.

This article will provide details of why Comey is being called the “central figure” in the Treasonous Plan to take President Trump down.

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Captain Joseph R. John, a combat veteran, is a 1962 graduate of the United States Naval Academy who retired from the US Navy after a long and distinguished career. He currently is the President of the Combat Veterans Training Group and is the founder of the Combat Veterans for Congress PAC.

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