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The Timeline Problems of James Comey’s Testimony

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FBI Director James Comey delivered his long-awaited testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee today. There are at least two significant timeline issues with Comey’s testimony.

Marco Rubio’s questioning summed up the hearing succinctly and in the most salient manner:

RUBIO: What it comes down to is the president asked three things of you. Asked for your loyalty. You said you’d be loyally honest.

COMEY: Honestly loyal.

RUBIO: Honestly loyal. He asked you on one occasion to let the Mike Flynn thing go because he was a good guy. By the way, you’re aware he said the same thing in the press the next day. He is a good guy, treated unfairly, et cetera. I imagine your FBI agents read that.

COMEY: I’m sure they did.Continue Reading

Comey’s Statement & His Political Undermining of President Trump

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Former FBI Director James Comey released his opening statement ahead of his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 8 2017. My assessment follows the highlights of Comey’s statement.

Comey notes nine one-on-one interactions – three in person and six on the phone – with President Trump but highlights only five. He states:

January 6 2017:

on January 6 2017, he informed President Trump that he was not under investigation – without President Trump asking him about the matter.

he documented his first conversation with President Trump on a laptop immediately after the meeting.

he decided to create written records of conversations with President Trump from that point forward.

he did not engage in this practice with others – including written documentation of conversations with Obama – of which he says there were only two in eight years.

the FBI Investigation is a counter-intelligence investigation – not a criminal one.Continue Reading

The Timely Death of the DOJ Slush Fund

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Lots of news this week with the Senate Intelligence Committee Hearing underway and the breathless anticipation of former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony slated for tomorrow. Which is why this action by Attorney General Jeff Sessions has largely slipped under the radar.

A couple months back I wrote about The Department of Justice’s Slush Fund.

The Working Group was created within the Justice Department in 2012 as a means of prosecution and punishment for those perceived to be responsible for the financial crisis of 2008. With the full weight of the Department of Justice behind it, the Working Group reached multi-billion settlements with virtually every major bank in America.

According to a Congressional Committee Report – Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act of 2016:Continue Reading

Trump’s Middle East Speech & the GCC’s Rebuke of Qatar

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Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, the Maldives, Yemen and Libya have all announced they are cutting ties with Qatar. The countries have ordered their citizens out of Qatar and have given Qatari citizens residing in their countries fourteen days to return to Qatar. Qatari diplomats are being ejected immediately – within 48 hours. Air travel is restricted immediately and land routes are being blocked.

In a closely coordinated move, Bahrain was the first to break ties with Qatar, followed quickly by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Yemen, Libya and the Maldives.

At this point, Kuwait and Oman are the only members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that have retained ties with Qatar (also a GCC member). Don’t be surprised if these countries join as well.

At the risk of understatement, this is significant news – and represents an unprecedented level of coordination between the Arab nations.Continue Reading

Three Subpoenas – Unmasking the Unmaskers

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Yesterday the Wall Street Journal reported that seven subpoenas were issued by the House Intelligence Committee.

Four of the Subpoenas were for Mike Flynn and President Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen – one for each man and one for their respective companies. According to Fox News, these four subpoenas were “issued at behest of the committee’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), and were said to be duplicative of subpoenas already issued by the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is conducting a parallel probe”. As such they are not the real story – indeed, they were almost certainly issued by Schiff as a distraction from the real story.Continue Reading

John Sununu and the CNN Russian Smackdown

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Just as Democrats are allergic to the truth, I’m allergic to stupidity. Which is why I missed this epic takedown provided by John Sununu during an interview on CNN. This video – at bottom of page – comes to you courtesy of The Conservative Treehouse. Folks over there apparently have a higher pain threshold than do I. Give their site a look-see. Always thought-provoking.

Sununu utterly destroys CNN’s Alisyn Camerota’s attempts at maintaining the Russian Narrative. Note that Sununu was highly critical of Trump during the campaign – which is perhaps why CNN put him on. The interview did not go as they expected…

A couple of varied quotes to give you a taste:Continue Reading

John Brennan Heads for the Exits

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CIA Director John Brennan testified before the full House Intelligence Committee on May 23, 2017. And judging from his opening statements, Mr. Brennan had closely watched former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony on March 20th 2017.

The full video of Brennan’s testimony is below (transcript here). I will highlight some key moments:Continue Reading

Free Speech, Acquiescence & Weaponized Compassion

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The other day, David French wrote an article for National Review, in response to twitter outrage over an earlier article he’d written on Chelsea Manning – the trans soldier pardoned by Obama.  French’s refusal to use the pronoun “her” when describing Chelsea Manning – previously Bradley Manning – sparked the outrage. And prompted a twitter response by another journalist, Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept:

“Does @DavidAFrench also bravely walk up to adoptive parents & tell them their kids aren’t *really* their “children”?”

Greenwald’s tweet led to my own, including:

“At the core – two fundamentally opposing views. @DavidAFrench is advocating for free speech. @ggreenwald wants to stifle free speech.”

It also led to my article, An Illustrative Twitter Chat with David & Glenn. The reaction was equally illustrative.Continue Reading

An Illustrative Twitter Chat with David & Glenn

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The social justice people are always on the side of compassion and ‘victim’s rights,’ so objecting to anything they do makes you instantly a perpetrator. The thing is if you replace compassion with resentment, then you understand the authoritarian left. There is resentment, fundamentally. – Dr. Jordan Peterson

I had planned on another topic for the day but a debate on twitter caught my attention. And my initially one-sided participation.

The two engaged participants were both journalists – David French of National Review and Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept.

David French had written what I found to be an articulate and thoughtful article in response to twitter outrage over an earlier article on Chelsea Manning – the trans soldier pardoned by Obama. French’s first piece, titled Chelsea Manning’s Release is Nothing to Celebrate, took issue with the release of Manning. I agree with French’s position. But that wasn’t what sparked the outraged responses. It was French’s refusal to use the pronoun “her” when describing Chelsea Manning – previously Bradley Manning – in his initial article.

And the backlash was fierce.Continue Reading

President Trump, Special Counsel & Some Relevant Facts

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The Democrats have managed to pressure Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein into appointing former FBI Director Robert Mueller as Special Counsel to handle the Russian Investigation.

My question is – other than being a pressured response to external political forces – why?

There is no evidence of collusion between President Trump and the Russian Government. None.

This has been repeatedly – although reluctantly – stated by senior Democrats like Dianne Feinstein. Feinstein is the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee and a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. She has access to the best levels of information. Here is her May 18th, 2017 exchange with Wolf Blitzer of CNN:Continue Reading