Political Arena

Washington Post:

By Joshua Partlow
March 11, 2015

LAREDO, Tex. — Last spring, as Central American children flooded into Texas in a way he had never seen in his three-decade career, Border Patrol agent Robert Harris decided to experiment.

His intelligence analysts estimated that 78 percent of the guides smuggling other migrants were Mexicans younger than 18 — teenagers often hired or conscripted by drug cartels that knew they would not be prosecuted if caught — and he wanted to attack this loophole.

“Why don’t we remove these juveniles from the smuggling cycle?” Harris, the outgoing commander of the Laredo sector of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, recalled thinking.

Now, as a result of that decision, young Mexicans are being held for months without charge in shelters across the United States, sometimes without their parents’ knowledge. Since the program began in May, 536 juveniles have been held — 248 of whom have been deported to Mexico after an average stay of 75 days, according to Border Patrol statistics. Mexican authorities say some of these repeat border-crossers have spent as much as six months in U.S. custody while they await an appearance before an immigration judge.

During their detention, they are questioned by U.S. authorities and then transferred to a network of facilities run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, across 15 states. While confined, they undergo psychological evaluations and take English courses. Some are allowed tourist-type activities, such as going to the beach or museums, according to Mexican consular officials in Texas. At least one youth earned a high school general equivalency diploma.

Two U.S. Border Patrol agents patrol the banks of the Rio Grande on Feb. 12 in Laredo, Tex. (Jonathan Levinson/For the Washington Post)
“We haven’t heard of any mistreatment,” said Erasmo R. Martinez, Mexico’s consul in McAllen, Tex.

But the little-known program, called the Juvenile Referral Process, has worried human rights groups and some Mexican officials who fear that it puts the children at risk. They view it as a way for U.S. authorities to gather intelligence about cartels and think it endangers the children who could be targeted as informants when they return to Mexico. Some question the legality of the extended detentions.

“Our concern is that the program’s real intent is to interrogate the kids,” said Maureen Meyer, an expert on Mexico and migrants at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). The kids are “often questioned about the criminal groups they are working for and then subsequently returned to Mexico with no apparent concern about the implications for them.”

A short but very good piece excerpted from Heartland Diary USA blog:

As the title of an old movie would have it, there is “Nothing Sacred” — certainly not when it comes to a prosecutor who would put partisan interests ahead of country like Andrew Weissmann, the duplicitous lawyer who went from Hillary Clinton supporter to Trump persecutor.

So it comes as no surprise that Weissmann is cashing in on his tenure as the lead hyena in the Mueller Witch Hunt by signing a book deal with Random House.Weissmann, who attended Hillary Clinton’s “victory party,” was responsible for keeping alive the Russia collusion hoax by prosecuting Paul Manafort on years-old charges involving the Ukraine that had nothing to do with Trump. He is also famous for prosecutorial excess in the Enron case and has been reversed by the Supreme Court for his unlawful prosecutions.

Read more HERE.

There are some federal law enforcement agencies that also have a counter intelligence role. Such agencies have access to CIA/FBI spying tools such as engaging in intercepting  emails, phone calls, financial records etc. However, federal law is crystal clear that there shall be NO spying on U.S. persons without probable cause of a genuine foreign intelligence threat and approval from the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court.

Illegal spying on Americans has been highlighted in the news since it was revealed that the FBI/ DoJ and CIA have been caught lying to the FISA court in order to spy on the Trump campaign.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) has admitted in military court, as if it had done nothing wrong, that it used counterintelligence spying tools which are supposed to be used to stop foreign terrorist threats and espionage, to spy on the defense lawyers of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher who is accused of killing a member of the Taliban in violation of the rules of engagement.

Defense council is making criminal referrals to prosecute Navy Lawyers for the misuse of spying tools. Navy prosecutors are also accused of illegally hiding exculpatory evidence from the defense.

The nonchalant nature in which the NCIS has admitted the use of spying tools to spy on Americans indicates that this is par for the course for the agency.

I encourage readers to watch the entire presser below as the way NCIS’ illegal behavior is described is almost breathtaking :

What other branches of the military are being used to spy on Americans?

Via Epoch News:

UPDATE – AG Barr to declassify documents implicating Obama White House on illegal spying:

On Mueller’s little press show today; “I could not clear the President” – A prosecutor never “clears” anyone period stop, as that is not how the law works or was ever intended.

A prosecutor decides if there is enough evidence to act on or not. Of course Mueller found no evidence of collusion with Russia and Trump as his report says. This nonsense of his about “could not clear” is simply to use innuendo to imply guilt.

Always remember that “innocence” is assumed and implied until proven otherwise beyond reasonable doubt.

Get this, if Mueller found any evidence of Democrat, FBI/DoJ/CIA wrongdoing or knew about the bogus FISA Court applications and did nothing about them then HE is guilty of obstruction.

To make sure this wild train of abuses never happens again, when the FISA Applications are declassified in coming weeks I think he should be charged as I believe the evidence will be there that he knew. He should be charged not just for reasons of justice, but to help ensure that the Special Prosecutor statute never be used as a part of a coup attempt ever again.

Former Federal Prosecutor Fred Tucce:

Quite frankly, I find Mr. Mueller’s comments reprehensible. The part that bothers me the most is the bedrock for our system of justice is that people are presumed innocent unless proven otherwise beyond a reasonable doubt… I think what he did today really was one of the most political things I’ve ever seen a prosecutor do and I am deeply disappointed in the Justice Department for his conduct… These comments are nothing more than chum in the water for Democrats.

UPDATE – Former Federal Prosecutor Sydney Powell speaks out:

Democrats say time and time again that the Trump Administration is engaged in a cover up even though less than 2% of the Mueller Report is redacted and must be under Rule 6E stating that Grand Jury testimony must be kept secret. Even so certain Democrat Members of Congress with the proper clearance can go to view the redactions, most have chosen not to while still claiming a cover up.

It is widely believed via leaks, whistleblowers and the previously released FISA Court documents that at least three of the four applications that the DoJ/FBI under Obama made to the FISA Court in order to get surveillance of the Trump campaign approved were fraudulent; in short they lied to the court to get approval. Trump is making those applications and associating documents public. Democrats are having a conniption fit.

So now, making more details about the investigation public is somehow part of the cover up, at least according to Democrats:

The Hill:

Researchers have identified what they are calling a coordinated campaign to undermine President Trump on Instagram, an effort that bears hallmarks of the disinformation campaigns that proliferated on the platform in 2016.

A recently published study by Italian analytics firm Ghost Data identified a network of 350 anti-Trump accounts coordinating efforts to promote messages deriding the president, sometimes with graphic or violent language. The researchers found 19 suspicious Instagram accounts that took the lead in promoting anti-Trump content.

In total, the posts from the accounts generated have more than 35.2 million interactions, with 3.9 million of those interactions occurring in the last two months. The study concluded that the anti-Trump Instagram campaign has ramped up over the past several months, with the network’s activities swelling “dramatically” since April.

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/444597-researchers-find-campaign-on-instagram-to-undermine-trump

Social Justice Warriors are in denial of reality and human nature. Their borish, post modernist race to the mediocre virtue signalling is not fun and more importantly it is not honest.

Here is the Luke we should have been treated to in the new Star Wars trilogy. “Missed opportunity” hardly seems adequate. Enjoy:

Declassified News has this complete home run of a video explaining what is going on with the elite media:

Gov. Sarah Palin with husband Todd and baby Trig.

The elite media loves a good hoax so long as it smears a Republican or someone who is otherwise a threat to the progressive secular left.

In 2008 Sarah Palin enjoyed top ratings by her voters, she drew massive crowds, and she  energized the party like no other has since Ronald Reagan. She had also given what many believe was the most effective Convention Speech in recent memory. So of course the Democrats and their elite media allies set out to destroy her with lies, false quotes that were simply made up, carefully edited videos to make her look foolish etc..

The worst phoney accusation by far was that Sarah Palin’s most recent pregnancy was faked and that the baby really belonged to her teen daughter Bristol.

Sarah bounced back from her pregnancy quickly and was simply in peak physical form. Sarah and her husband Todd are both very athletic with Todd being a professional Iditerod and snowmachine racer.

To explain it and in order to further their smear campaign against Palin, Democrats and the elite media simply made this scandal up and insisted it was true in spite of scientific evidence to the contrary. Some in the elite media were “continuing the investigation” well in to 2014. So much for “leaving the kids of candidates alone” which only seems to be in effect when Democrats are in power.

Many who believe the New York Times, Washington Post, ABC, NBC, CNN, MSNBC truly believed that Sarah Palin faked her pregnancy to protect her daughter and the campaign. To this day many Democrats still believe it, just as they believe that Sarah Palin said that she can see Russia from her house (she never said this). Other hoaxes that were widely reported about Sarah Palin are that she has affairs with NBA stars, she banned books from the Wasilla Library while she was Mayor. Palin wasn’t alone in such reporting at the New York Times reported, on the day he won the GOP nomination, that he had an affair with a young lobbyist. A hoax. It was completely made up.

Yet, most Democrats who watch CNN and MSNBC still believe that Donald Trump colluded with Russia to win the election even though this has been debunked as the most investigated hoax in American History.

RIP Doris Day, one of the most talented entertainers ever. To this day almost no one can measure up. Was she the very last of the greats?

Please forward the video to 1:35

As most Political Arena readers are aware, the US Government under the Obama Administration spied on many reporters, including veteran CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson.

When Attkisson was reporting on President Bush she was a hero, when she reported on President Obama accurately she became a pariah and CBS, under pressure from Democrats, willingly stopped airing her work.

The Obama Administration illegally hacked CBS’s computers, hacked Sharyl Attkisson’s computers and likely put her home under electronic surveillance. After CBS admitted they were hacked, their protest ended there. Does anyone believe that if Trump or Bush had done this CBS would have just let this go so easily?

Since CBS bailed on Attkisson (a warning to other reporters who would dare report accurately about the wrongdoing of any powerful Democrat), she is suing on her own and raising money to fund the lawsuit by herself.

Since filing her lawsuit the DoJ and “intelligence community” have directly violated court ordered discovery and have been hiding evidence in violation of the law for years.

Even appellate court judges have been compromised as two of them actually had the temerity to rule that the fact that the government would not comply with court orders and violated discovery was Sharyl Attkisson’s fault – you read that correctly. Attkisson is appealing that court’s Wilson Fisk like ruling to the higher en-banc appeals court.

Senator Charles Schumer had a warning for those who would take on the “intelligence community” as Sharyl is:

Wisely, Attkisson has found a television gig on a smaller network and works hard to keep a high public profile because just keeping it real, people have been victims of Arkanside for a lot less.

Watch for yourself…..

And this is why Avery Brooks, is well Avery Brooks. He played Captain Benjamin Lafayette Sisko on Star Trek, Deep Space Nine.

The pinheads running Lucasfilm and Star Trek Discovery are now learning the hard way what Brooks explained here.

Below is one of his finest moments in Star Trek. Please watch the videos as they auto-load in order:

Below is a letter from Emmet Flood, the Special Counsel to the President. It explains in great detail how the content Special Prosecutor Mueller’s report, broke rules of procedure, DoJ Rules, the special counsel statute and the cooperation agreement Mueller made with the White House.

Much of what is said mirrors what we have said in our postings here at PoliticalArena; namely that:

1 – There is no such thing as a declaration of “innocent” in our legal system

2 – Mueller was tasked with making a determination to prosecute or not and explain why he did or did not to the Attorney General. Mueller actively refused to do just that. Instead he left it “open” for others” as a giant political hot potato. That is not the job of a prosecutor.

3 – As part of the agreement the Special Counsel had with the White House, the White House would not claim executive privilege and would cooperate with the investigation, so long and Mueller and his team kept such privileged information, interviews and personal information. Instead, Mueller published almost all of it in volume II of his report including political, law enforcement, personal, and process information that has no business being released to the public.

Please read the entire letter below carefully and deliberately. 

===================================================================

THE  WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON

April 19. 2019

Via Hand Delivery

The Honorable William P. Barr Attorney General of the United States United States Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W. Washington D.C. 20530

Dear Mr. Attorney General:

I write on behalf of the Office of the President to memorialize concerns relating to the form of the Special Counsel’s Office (“SCO”) Report (‘”SCO Report” or “Report”) and to address executive privilege issues associated with its release.

The SCO Report suffers from an extraordinary legal defect: It quite deliberately fails to comply with the requirements of governing law. Lest the Report’s release be taken as a ” precedent” or perceived as somehow legitimating the defect, I write with both the President and future Presidents in mind to make the following points clear.

I begin with the SCO’s stated conclusion on the obstruction question: The SCO concluded that the evidence “prevent[ed] [it] from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred.” SCO Report v.2, p.2. But “conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred” was not the SCO’s assigned task, because making conclusive determinations of innocence is never the task of the federal prosecutor.

What prosecutors are supposed to do is complete an investigation and then either ask the grand jury to return an indictment or decline to charge the case. When prosecutors decline to charge, they make that decision not because they have “conclusively determined that no criminal conduct occurred,” but rather because they do not believe that the investigated conduct constitutes a crime for which all the elements can be proven to the satisfaction of a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. Prosecutors simply are not in the business of establishing innocence, any more than they are in the business of “exonerating” investigated persons. In the American justice system, innocence is presumed; there is never any need for prosecutors to ” conclusively determine” it. Nor is there any place for such a determination. Our country would be a very different (and very dangerous) place if prosecutors applied the SCO standard and citizens were obliged to prove “conclusively . . . that no criminal conduct occurred.”

Because they do not belong to our criminal justice vocabulary, the SCO’s inverted-proof­ standard and “exoneration” statements can be understood only as political statements, issuing from persons (federal prosecutors) who in our system of government are rightly expected never to be political in the performance of their duties. The inverted burden of proof knowingly embedded in the SCO ‘ s conclusion shows that the Special Counsel and his staff failed in their duty to act as prosecutors and only as prosecutors.

Second, and equally importantly: In closing its investigation, the SCO had only one job – to ‘·provide the Attorney General with a confidential report explaining the prosecution or declination decisions reached by the Special Counsel.’. 28 C.F.R. § 600.S(c). Yet the one thing the SCO was obligated to do is the very thing the SCO – intentionally and unapologetically ­ refused to do. The SCO made neither a prosecution decision nor a declination decision on the obstruction question. Instead, it transmitted a 182-page discussion of raw evidentiary material combined with its own inconclusive observations on the arguable legal significance of the gathered content. As a result , none of the Report’s Volume 11 complied with the obligation imposed by the governing regulation to explain the prosecution or declination decisions reached.” Id.

The SCO instead produced a prosecutorial curiosity – part ”truth commission” report and part law school exam paper.  Far more detailed than the text of any known criminal indictment or declination memorandum, the Report is laden with factual information that has never been subjected to adversarial testing or independent analysis. That information is accompanied by  a series of inexplicably inconclusive observations (inexplicable, that is, coming from a prosecutor) concerning possible applications of law to fact. This species of public report has no basis in the relevant regulation and no precedent in the history of special/independent counsel investigations .

An investigation of the President under a regulation that clearly specifies a very particular form of closing documentation is not the place for indulging creative departures from governing law. Under general prosecutorial principles, and under the Special Counsel regulation’s specific language, prosecutors are to speak publicly through indictments or confidentially in declination memoranda. By way of justifying this departure, it has been suggested that the Report was written with the intent of providing Congress some  kind of ‘roadmap’ for congressional action.  See,e.g., Remarks of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, 4/18 /19 (Press Conference). (1) If that was in fact the SCO’s intention, it too serves as additional evidence of the SCO’s refusal to follow applicable law. Both the language of the regulation and its “‘legislative ” history make plain that the ‘·[c]losing documentation” language was promulgated for the specific purpose of preventing the creation of this sort of final report. (2) Under a constitution of separated powers, inferior Article II officers should not be in the business of creating ‘road maps” for the purpose of transmitting them to Article I committees.

With the release of the SCO Report, and despite all of the foregoing, the President has followed through on his consistent promise of transparency. He encouraged every White House staffer to cooperate fully with the SCO and, so far as we are aware, all have done so. Voluntary interviewees included the Counsel to the President, two Chiefs of Staff, the Press Secretary and numerous others. In addition, approximately 1.4 million pages of documents were provided to the SCO. This voluntary cooperation was given on the understanding (reached with the SCO) that information (i) gathered directly from the White House or White House staffers and (ii) having to do with Presidential communications, White House deliberations, law enforcement information, and perhaps other matter may be subject to a potential claim of executive privilege and, for that reason, would be treated by the SCO as presumptively privileged.  Volume II of the report contains a great deal of presumptively privileged information, largely in the form of references to, and descriptions of, White House staff interviews with the SCO. It also includes reference to presumptively privileged documentary materials.

The President is aware that, had he chosen to do so, he could have withheld such information on executive privilege grounds, basing such an assertion on the established principle that to permit release of such information might have a chilling effect on a President’s advisors, causing them to be less than fully frank in providing advice to a President. Notwithstanding his right to assert such a privilege, and with a measure of reluctance born of concern for future Presidents and their advisors, the President has in this instance elected not to assert executive privilege over any of the presumptively privileged portions of the report. As a consequence, not a single redaction in the Report was done on the advice of or at the direction of the White House.

The President therefore wants the following features of his decision to be known and understood:

• His decision not to assert privilege is not a waiver of executive privilege for any other material or for any other purpose;
• His decision to permit disclosure of executive-privileged portions of the report does not waive any privileges or protections for the SCO’ s underlying investigative materials such as, for example, FBI Form 302 witness interview summaries and presumptively privileged documents made available to the SCO by the White House.
• His decision does not affect his ability as President  to  instruct  his advisors to decline to appear before congressional committees  to  answer  questions  on  these same subjects. It is one thing for a President to encourage complete cooperation and transparency in a criminal investigation  conducted  largely within the  Executive Branch; it is  something  else entirely  to allow  his advisors to  appear  before Congress, a coordinate branch of government, and answer questions relating to their communications with the President and with each other. The former course reflected the President’s recognition of the importance  of  promoting  cooperation  with  a criminal investigation. The latter course creates profound separation  of  powers concerns and- if not defended aggressively – threatens to undermine the integrity of Executive Branch deliberations. The President is determined to protect from congressional scrutiny not only the advice rendered by his own advisors, but also by advisors to future Presidents.

A great deal is said these days about the rule of law and the importance of legal norms. In that spirit, and mindful of the frenzied atmosphere accompanying the Report’s release, the following should not be forgotten. Government officials, with access to classified information derived from a counterintelligence investigation and from classified intelligence intercepts, engaged in a campaign of illegal leaks against the President. Many of those leaks were felonies.

They disclosed the identity of a U.S. person in violation of his civil rights; they misused intelligence for partisan political purposes; and they eroded public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of our intelligence services. The criminal investigation began with a breach of confidentiality executed by a very senior administration official who was himself an intelligence service chief.  This leak of confidential information, personally directed by the former Director of the FBI, triggered the creation of the SCO itself – precisely as he intended it to do.

Not so long ago, the idea that a law enforcement official might provide the press with confidential governmental information for the proclaimed purpose of prompting a criminal investigation of an identified individual would have troubled Americans of all political persuasions. That the head of our country’s top law enforcement agency has actually done so to the President of the United States should frighten every friend of individual liberty. Under our system of government, unelected Executive Branch officers and intelligence agency personnel are supposed to answer to the person elected by the people – the President – and not the other way around. This is not a Democratic or a Republican issue; it is a matter of having a government responsible to the people – and, again, not the other way around. In the partisan commotion surrounding the released Report, it would be well to remember that what can be done to a President can be done to any of us.

These leaks and this investigation also caused immense and continuing interference with the functioning of the Executive Branch. Our constitution makes the President the sole constitutional officer for whom the entire Nation votes, and [who] represent[s] the entire Nation both domestically and abroad.” Clinton v. Jones, 520 U.S. 681, 711 (1997) (Breyer, J., concurring). As a result, ‘interference with a President ‘s ability to carry out his public responsibilities is constitutionally equivalent to interference with the ability of the entirety of Congress, or the Judicial Branch, to carry out its public obligations.” Id. at 713. It is inarguable that the now-resolved allegation of ·’Russian collusion” placed a cloud over the Presidency that has only begun to lift in recent weeks. The pendency of the SCO investigation plainly interfered with the President’s ability to carry out his public responsibility to serve the American people and to govern effectively. These very public and widely felt consequences flowed from, and were fueled by, improper disclosures by senior government officials with access to classified information. That this continues to go largely unremarked should worry all civil libertarians, all supporters of investigative due process, and all believers in limited and effective government under the Constitution.

I respectfully ask you to include a copy of this letter in the Department’s records relating to the SCO investigation.

Sincerely

Emmet T. Flood

Special Counsel to the President

================================================================

As readers may recall, FBI Lead investigator Peter Strzok and FBI DoJ Attorney Lisa Page spoke in their text messages and emails how the FBI was setting up an “insurance policy” in case Donald Trump won the election.

George Papadopoulos was a junior foreign policy consultant in the Trump campaign. His area of expertise is Middle Eastern/Mediterranean studies, Israel and energy.

George Papadopoulos

Papadopoulos had already been on the Obama Administration’s radar in a bad way for his support of Israeli energy independence and his opposition to the Iran deal and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Turkey. The Obama Administration was growing cozy with elements of the Muslim Brotherhood and President Erdogan of Turkey who is more sympathetic to militant Islam.

Papadopoulos was targeted by at least three FBI/CIA assets/agents that we know of in an attempt to entrap him and make it appear that Papadopoulos was a Russian Intelligence asset, this giving the FBI/Obama Administration the excuse to get a FISA wire tap warrant against him and this spy on nut just him, but most of the Trump Campaign through him.

EDITOR’S NOTE: When the FBI or CIA want to spy on a VIP illegally,  they do not target said person directly as that raises the chance of getting caught, leaks etc. So they find an obscure person, one or two orbits removed from said VIP and use that person as the central spying target on paper, and then anyone he associates with and then anyone associated with that group of people until the real target is being surveilled. The government will then abuse “unmasking requests” (of those “incidentally” targeted /wink /wink) to reveal information on the target VIP and those around him.

UPDATE – Make that at least FOUR FBI/CIA assets – Attorney General William Barr revealed during his Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that former Australian diplomat Alexander Downer was an FBI source for information about George Papadopoulos.

So while Papadopoulos was invited to talk to FBI/CIA asset Joseph Misfud in Rome, who presented himself as a Russian agent working for Putin who had dirt on Hillary to give to Papadopoulos; on the back side FBI/CIA assets Prof. Stefan A. Halper and a curvy seductress known as Azra Turk who worked to ahem….”coax” Papadopoulos into saying that he was getting information for the Trump Campaign from the Russians. In short, textbook entrapment.

It seems that Ms. Turk was a little too obvious and Papadopoulos was able to put “two & two” together. The Mueller Report falsely labels Joseph Misfud as a Russian asset and thus is a part of the justification used to get FISA warrants on the Trump Campaign.

MSN has a great piece on Stefan Halper and Azra Turk – F.B.I. Sent Investigator Posing as Assistant to Meet With Trump Aide in 2016.

More on Misfud – Devin Nunes: How Many Spies (With An “S”) Did Obama Administration Target At Trump Campaign?

More on Misfud’s ties to the Clinton State Department – Devin Nunes: Clinton ‘dirt’ tipster Joseph Mifsud has ties to State Department.

Mueller Report hid information on Misfud – Nunes: Mueller report ‘cherry-picked’ information about mysterious Maltese Professor Mifsud.

EDITOR’S NOTE – The DNC talking point against George Papadopoulos is “Papadopoulos plead guilty to lying to the FBI so he isn’t trustworthy”. What they fail to say is that in his voluntary testimony to Robert Mueller that he simply got a date wrong. Robert Mueller threw the book at Papadopoulos, his staff tried to convince his wife to leave him and also threatened to prosecute him under the FARA Act for his position on Israeli and South East Mediterranean energy independence.

Papadopoulos did not have the resources to pay the lawyers to fight these false charges even though he was innocent, so he accepted 16 days in jail as a plea bargain.

Watch the video below. Democrat Congress-lady Madeleine Dean seems so reasonable doesn’t she? Well she isn’t and she counting on you to be unaware of several important key facts to get away with the wildly dishonest statements given in the video below. The Fox News reporter pushes back a little, but essentially lets her get away with it.

It is important to understand exactly what what Congress-lady Madeleine Dean is asking from Attorney general Bob Barr is illegal for him to reveal to her as a member of the House Judiciary Committee.

She is asking for Grand Jury testimony that is given to the DoJ in secret under Federal Rule of Procedure 6E. Grand Jury testimony is not cross examined and is essentially unsubstantiated allegations and information used in a fishing expedition in order for a prosecutor to see if there is a crime alleged that he can possibly charge.

It is unethical in the extreme for a prosecutor to not charge someone with a crime, but than to release unsubstantiated rumors, hearsay and unchallenged accusations to the public to smear someone; yet this is exactly what Democrats are asking AG Barr to do. The courts have had these rules for over 200 years and the Congress has passed laws to enforce these rules for very good reasons most of which are obvious.

Congress-lady Dean is also asking that raw intelligence data gathered through covert and other means be turned over to her. She is not on the Intelligence Committee and she is not entitled to see such information. Data received during counter intelligence operations is largely inadmissible in court as people under surveillance or even moles can say or allege anything. Also, the accused would have a right to face and cross examine such accusers and witnesses.

Lastly, Congress-lady Dean goes on and on about how the Mueller Report gave no exoneration. Political Arena readers let me ask you, when a Jury gives a verdict in a trial do they say “Guilty” or “Not Guilty” (essentially proven beyond reasonable doubt or not proven) or do they say “exonerated”? As everyone knows very well the courts, juries and prosecutors never render an judgment of “exoneration” to anyone as that is not even an option available to them. They either have enough substantiated proof to make a criminal charge stick with a jury unanimously or they don’t.

Congress-lady Dean is not just a member of Congress, but an experienced trial lawyer who knows all of this very well (as is most members of the Judiciary Committee) and yet when pushed by the reporter she uses such dodges as “what do they have to hide” and makes allegations that she says are in the Mueller Report that simply are not there. She is just counting on you not actually reading it and counting on you to not understand the laws of criminal procedure which are there to protect all of us and due process.

Democrats are going to put on a dog and pony show to attempt to make Trump and AG Barr look like they are guilty “of something”, but the truth is that the “dossier” that got all of this fake Russia business going was “intelligence” that was manufactured by the Democratic Party and their allies and presented to the courts as if it was real.

UPDATE: Ted Cruz systematically dismantles Democrat’s arguments at the Barr Hearing

I just got back from Avengers Endgame. I have no words other than to say that this is the greatest epic adventure film in history.

I am aware of nothing that can top this, not even Lord of the Rings, Tora Tora Tora, Gone with the Wind, Saving Private Ryan, The longest Day, Victory, etc.

“Like the Old Man said, Together.”

UPDATED! Be sure to see the Editor’s Note below!

While we do not do a great deal of pop culture reporting, it is worth pointing out that Avenger’s actors have universally approached their roles as something that is much bigger than themselves. They have treated the Marvel franchise with not just respect, but reverence and humility. This is one reason why these characters and the talented actors who play them, are so well received by audiences around the world.

There is, unfortunately, an exception in Brie Larson who plays Avenger newbie Captain Marvel. Larson has used her newfound fame and platform as a member of the biggest entertainment franchise in world history to engage in relentless “virtue signalling” and cramming her highly divisive radical feminist and cultural Marxist ideology down people’s throats.

The Avengers has always been about a group of VERY different people coming together in spite of their own personal failings, for the cause of the greater good. Along comes Brie Larson who time and time again uses her platform to spread divisiveness. Needless to say a great number of the fans resent it, as well do several Avengers cast members.

The disgust shown by Don Cheadle (War Machine) and Chris Hemsworth (Thor) show towards Larson is impossible to miss. So shocking was this interview that Bombards Body Language posted an analysis of it which is very much worth your time:

Notice what Larson says in reaction to some of Hemsworth’s harmless banter “I am NOT the next Tom Cruise! I am the first BRIE! Thank you VERY much!”

Thanks to Geeks and Gamers for this video of an interview with Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) and Brie Larson (Capt. Marvel). Renner is obviously very uncomfortable with her and his body language is unmistakable. Renner has a reputation of being warm and funny so the bad behavior Larson had to display to get to this point with Renner…..

Editor’s Note:

There are many far left websites and those in the access media who engage in the same old tripe; if you don’t approve of their divisive radical neo-marxist ideologies than you are somehow a hater who wants said “minority” – in this case female leads – to fail. They present radical feminism as being synonymous with equal rights for women when they know darn well it means no such thing.

When a militant feminist condemns “40 year old white guys” as we have seen so often from the likes of Brie Larson, some at Lucasfilm and radicalized far left academics, it is not even close to saying “look how great Sigourney Weaver was in Aliens” or how “great Milla Jovovich was in The Fifth Element.” The simple fact is that those who objected to Brie Larson using the Marvel platform to cram divisive ideologies down our throat are the same people who praise the great female leads mentioned above as well as Carrie Fisher, The Clone Wars’ Ahsoka Tano, Alita: Battle Angel, and the very well made Patty Jenkins version of Wonder Woman.

Why?

The films praised by “haters” told a great story, with a character who had a great hero’s journey, who overcame personal failings to achieve something special; all while not cramming divisive nonsense down our throats.

In the case of Disney Star Wars and Captain Marvel, those promoting the movie were pushing militant feminism, condemning fans who didn’t like it, called them bad names and on top of that, had female leads that were perfect from minute one, had no journey, no growth and the story suffered accordingly.

In the case of Rey in Disney Star Wars she could fly and fix the Millennium Falcon better than Han Solo the minute she stepped on board, she could use The Force and handily defeat a Luke Skywalker trained Force user the first time she picked up a lightsaber, and after three lessons she kicked Luke Slywalker’s butt and why “because female” according to Kathleen Kennedy and militant feminists everywhere – and Luke had to be turned into a pathetic Blue Moof Milker because “equality”.

This is why The Last Jedi toys are not selling, it is why it had the largest second week drop in film history and why fans were so upset at how terrible the film was that they straight up boycotted Solo:A Star Wars Story just to teach Lucasfilm a lesson.

The reaction from denizens at Lucasfilm and their access media lackeys was to call the fans dirty names. It seems that they are under the impression that they can call their fans names, condemn 40 year old white guys and yet continue to demand that said 40 year old white guys spend their money and bring their children to films that are written poorly.

“But evil women hating Editor, Captain Marvel did a billion dollars at the box office!”

Yes it did, and as Disney has realized, it was not because of the film’s merits, it was because it was sandwiched in between the two Avengers: Infinity War films which was the climax of the greatest multi-film cinematic event in film history. Fans believed that they had to see Captain Marvel to learn more about the final Infinity War film. This is made evident by the fact that Captain Marvel’s blu-ray sales were not even 2/3rds of that of Black Panther. Apparently the “bigot woman hating rubes” liked Black Panther and bought those blu-rays.

After doing the market research Disney has learned that Brie Larson as Captain Marvel is so unlikeable that they are trial ballooning plans to team her with Tom Holland’s very likeable Spiderman.

FBI ADMITS: Obama White House Used Hillary’s Illegal Email Server:

Hannity: Clinton’s colluded with the Russians

Hannity Entire Show

‘Unplanned’ director tells Senate panel about Twitter, Google’s censorship

Joseph Mifsud was not a Russian asset as he claimed to be to George Papadopoulos when he approached Trump Campaign officials about getting Hillary’s emails from Russia. Misfud is a CIA/FBI asset who works at the CIA’s “spy university” in Rome. Misfud is also a friend of Hillary Clinton and once said in an interview that he is a member of the Clinton Foundation. He worked to entrap George Papadopolous.

Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller knew all of this and lied in his report about the status of Misfud.

PAPADOPOULOS’ TRANSCRIPTS OF HEARING WITH OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE – LINK

Deep State Target by George Papadopoulos – Amazon Link

U.S. Intelligence Institutionally Politicized Toward Democrats – LINK

UPDATE –

More on Misfud – Devin Nunes: How Many Spies (With An “S”) Did Obama Administration Target At Trump Campaign?

More on Misfud’s ties to the Clinton State Department – Devin Nunes: Clinton ‘dirt’ tipster Joseph Mifsud has ties to State Department.

Mueller Report hid information on Misfud – Nunes: Mueller report ‘cherry-picked’ information about mysterious Maltese Professor Mifsud.

Obama’s Campaign Paid $972,000 To Law Firm That Secretly Paid Fusion GPS In 2016
Since April of 2016, Obama’s campaign organization has paid nearly a million dollars to the law firm that funneled money to Fusion GPS to compile a dossier of unverified allegations against Donald Trump.

BOB WOODWARD: FBI AND CIA HANDLING OF STEELE DOSSIER ‘NEEDS TO BE INVESTIGATED’

NYT: The Tables Have Turned — Time To Investigate The FBI, Steele And The Rest Of The ‘Witch Hunters‘

U.S. Intelligence Institutionally Politicized Toward Democrats

DOJ, FBI OFFICIALS ON MUELLER’S RUSSIA TEAM IN COVER UP OF MUELLER’S, CLAPPER’S, AND BRENNAN’S SURVEILLANCE ‘HAMMER’ THAT SPIED ON TRUMP, STRZOK-PAGE TEXT SHOWS – LINK

CIA whistleblower: Mueller’s FBI computers spied on Trump and SCOTUS – LINK

Obama’s surveillance Hammer on Trump worse than Watergate – LINK

Under grants of immunity obtained with the help of United States District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth, former head of the FISA Court, Klayman brought Montgomery to FBI Director James Comey. “We brought Montgomery forward to FBI Director James Comey, through his General Counsel James Baker” Klayman wrote at Newsmax.

On August 19, 2015, Montgomery produced 46 hard drives and 600 million pages of evidence documenting illegal surveillance to the FBI. The law enforcement agency took possession of Montgomery’s evidence, giving Montgomery a receipt for his production of the physical evidence.

In Decembe 2015, Montgomery was debriefed for three hours at the FBI’s Washington D.C. Field Office, inside a secure room known as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF), where he gave a videotaped deposition.

“Montgomery laid out how persons like then-businessman Donald Trump were illegally spied upon by Clapper, Brennan, and the spy agencies of the Obama administration. He even claimed that these spy agencies had manipulated voting in Florida during the 2008 presidential election, illegal tampering that helped Obama win the White House.”

Devin Nunes:

“The Mueller report ignored a wide range of abuses committed during the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign. And now, with the revelation that the Special Counsel was authorized at the outset to investigate Carter Page for allegedly colluding with Russians to hack the election, it’s clear that false allegations from the Steele dossier played a major role not only in the FISA warrant application on Page, but in the appointment of the Special Counsel as well,” the California Republican wrote in a statement.

“The biggest takeaway from the entire Russia hoax is that our nation’s counter-intelligence capabilities should never again be abused to target an administration’s political opponents,” he said. “Those who colluded in this effort — the media, Fusion GPS, Democratic Party leaders in Congress, the Clinton campaign, and partisan intelligence leaders — should apologize to the innocent people they maligned and to the American people they deceived.”

When Peter Strzok and the crazed Trump haters were fired from Mueller’s team, they were still part of Mueller’s team….

Since today was my only day off I spent it researching the unredacted parts of the Mueller Report.

It is largely a political document being filled with speculation, unchallenged testimony and hearsay. It seems the point of the document was to repeat over and over that there was no solid evidence of collusion, but to also imply the opposite.

It also intends to blur the lines between simply defending ones self from Mueller’s unfair investigation, tactics and leaks to the media (most of which were lies), that this somehow means he sought to obstruct justice.

So Hillary and her people pleading the 5th, destroying 30,000 subpoenaed emails, computers, cell phones hard drives and documents does not even raise the specter of obstruction, but Trump using Twitter, pointing out Mueller’s unethical tactics, obvious conflicts of interest and violating attorney client privilege is somehow really bad. How dare he resist being accused of treason by a bunch of dishonest partisan hacks….

It is worth pointing out that the Trump Administration, in spite of legit protests, cooperated with the Mueller investigation, unlike the Clinton and Obama Administrations who constantly, claimed executive privilege (usually tossed out by the court 9-0), plead the 5th, ignored subpoenas, violated court orders, destroyed evidence, and obstructed in every means possible.

John Stewart of the Daily Show illustrates this obstruction pretty well.

Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller

Imagine if your local prosecutor publicly accused you of crimes and leaked to the media lies and manufactured evidence that suggested your guilt, but when the time came to show his cards to the court he bailed?

Then he issues a report to the media and your enemies explaining how guilty you are, all without proving a thing, obeying the rules of evidence etc etc etc. But hey, in the process he used the taxpayer money to do all sorts of opposition research on you, some true some not true, about you and your friends, just to smear you.

This is why prosecutors and courts usually do not release this kind of thing and why the raw data from investigations and Grand Jury proceedings are kept secret (Rule 6E) as said information is full of one sided allegations and accusations that have not been properly vetted, challenged, or cross examined by the other side.

Democrats know this, heck all lawyers know this. Keep that in mind next time you see politicians yammering about transparency. It’s phony.

[Editor’s Note – I have seen that after reading this some people still do not understand, so let us paint a clearer picture:

The same reasons apply here as to why so much of the JFK Assassination evidence has been kept secret to this day – every piece of partial evidence, every coincidence, every false allegation and every piece of circumstantial evidence would be escalated to an accusation of murdering the President.

The result would be chaos, countless lives ruined with no chance of defending themselves. The presumption of innocence would be tossed out the window. This is why the Constitution guarantees a presumption of innocence, the right to face and cross examine your accuser, and a right to discovery.]

UPDATE – A prime example of the previously mentioned phoniness is provided by Democrat Jerrold Nadler who had a much different take on 6E covered evidence when President Clinton was impeached. Watch for yourself:

This is long overdue.

Fox News:

President Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to promote free speech on college campuses by threatening colleges with the loss of federal research funding if they do not protect those rights.

“We’re here to take historic action to defend American students and American values,” Trump said, surrounded by conservative student activists at the signing ceremony. “They’ve been under siege.”

“Under the guise of speech codes, safe spaces and trigger warnings, these universities have tried to restrict free thought, impose total conformity and shut down the voices of great young Americans like those here today,” he said.

A senior administration official said the order directs 12 grant-making agencies to use their authority in coordination with the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to ensure institutions that receive federal research or education grants promote free speech and free inquiry. White House officials have said it will apply to more than $35 billion in grants.

Public universities seeking funding would have to certify they comply with the First Amendment, which already applies to them. Private universities, which have more flexibility in limiting speech, would need to commit to their own institutional rules.

“Even as universities have received billions and billions of dollars from taxpayers, many have become increasingly hostile to free speech and the First Amendment,” Trump said.

I Grew Up in a Communist System. Here’s What Americans Don’t Understand About Freedom

by Carmen Alexe

Individual freedom can only exist in the context of free-market capitalism. Personal freedom thrives in capitalism, declines in government-regulated economies, and vanishes in communism. Aside from better economic and legislative policies, what America needs is a more intense appreciation for individual freedom and capitalism.

I was born and raised in communist Romania during the Cold War, a country in which the government owned all the resources and means of production. The state controlled almost every aspect of our lives: our education, our job placement, the time of day we could have hot water, and what we were allowed to say.

Like the rest of the Eastern European countries, Romania was often referred to as a communist country. In school, we were taught it was a socialist country. Its name prior to the 1989 Revolution to overthrow the Ceausescu regime was the Socialist Republic of Romania.

From an economic standpoint, a petty fraction of property was still privately owned. In a communist system, all property is owned by the state. So if it wasn’t a true communist economy, its heavy central planning and the application of a totalitarian control over the Romanian citizenry made this nation rightfully gain its title of a communist country.

Socialism Creates Shortages

Despite the fact that Romania was a country rich in resources, there were shortages everywhere. Food, electricity, water, and just about every one of life’s necessities were in short supply. The apartment building in which we lived provided hot water for showers two hours in the morning and two hours at night. We had to be quick and on time so we didn’t miss the opportunity.

Wrigley’s chewing gum and Swiss chocolate were a rare delight for us. I remember how happy I was when I’d have a pack of foreign bubblegum or a bar of delicious milk chocolate. I’d usually save them for special occasions.

Fruity lip gloss, French perfume, and jeans were but a few of the popular items available only on the black market and with the right connections. God bless our black-market entrepreneurs! They made our lives better. They gave us the opportunity to buy things we very much desired, things we couldn’t get from the government-owned retail stores which were either half-empty or full of products that were ugly and of poor quality.

The grocery stores were not any better. I get it, maybe we didn’t need to be fashionable. But we needed to eat. So, the old Romanian adage “Conscience goes through the stomach” made a lot of sense.

During the late 1970s, life in Romania started to deteriorate even more. Meat was hardly a consumer staple for the average Romanian. Instead, our parents learned to become good at preparing the liver, the brain, the tongue, and other giblets that most people in the West would not even consider trying.

When milk, butter, eggs, and yogurt were temporarily available, my mom—like so many others of our neighbors—would wake up at 2:00 a.m. to go stand in line so she’d have the chance to get us these goodies. The store would open at 6:00 a.m., so if she wasn’t early enough in line she’d miss the opportunity.

In 1982, the state sent their disciples to people’s homes to do the census. Along with that, food rationing was implemented. For a family of four like us, our rationed quota was 1 kilogram of flour and 1 kilogram of sugar per month. That is, if they were available and if we were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time when they were being distributed.

The one television channel our government provided for us often focused on programs related to crime and poverty in the western world. After all, people were poor and suffering because of capitalism, so we were told, so we needed socialism and communism to solve the inequalities of humanity.

Capitalism Advances Private Property

Considering the shortages created by the government-controlled economy of my birth country, I came to understand and appreciate capitalism, the one system that had the most dramatic effect in elevating human civilization.

The layman definition of capitalism is the economic system in which people and businesses engage in manufacturing, trading, and exchanging products and services without government interference. A free-market capitalist system works in a more efficient manner when not tampered with by government or central bank intervention in the credit markets, monetary policy, and interest rate fixing.

Private property and private property rights are at the core of capitalism. When in school, we learned that private property makes people greedy and is considered detrimental to society. Private property was associated with capitalism, the system that our textbooks claimed failed.

Allocation Of Resources

Romania was rich in natural resources, yet the difference between our standard of living and those from the West was quite dramatic. It was indicative of a flawed economic system that most countries in Eastern Europe adhered to during the Soviet Era. But one may ask why was there so much poverty when natural resources are so abundant?

Economics is the study of the allocation of scarce resources which have alternative uses. Efficiency is thus of primary concern when the goal is economic progress.

In a centrally-planned environment, the various government individuals who are assigned the task of planning the economy could not possibly know how to properly allocate the scarce resources of an entire nation, no matter how smart or educated they are. Shortages are one of the consequences of improper allocation of the scarce resources.

The free market, however, through the multiple spontaneous interactions of businesses and consumers, directs the allocation of resources via the amazing process of supply and demand. It is precisely due to the profit and loss events that economic efficiency is stimulated.

Free Markets Attract Capital

Due to its profit incentives, capitalism encourages innovation. Innovation leads to progress and an increase in the standard of living. But progress and the climate which offers humans a high standard of living cannot be created without the capital to transform and turn resources into the final products that give us the—relatively—cheap energy and food, smartphones, fitness gyms, and overall the life we currently afford. Capital moves in the direction of less regulation, less government intervention, and less taxation. In short, capital moves to where there’s more economic freedom.

In contrast, communism, socialism, fascism, or just about any government-controlled system lacks the profit incentive. The people, who are the human resources, have no desire to engage in a business where the reward is not attainable (unless it’s done in the black markets). They accept the state and its bureaucratic cronies to dictate their faith.

Capital is chased away due to the high risk associated with governments who engage in high levels of controlling their economies and, often, corruption. The overall standard of living is dramatically lower than in most capitalist places, and the poverty is higher. Consequently, the collectivist country falls into an economic and social trap from which it is hard to escape. Only capitalism can save a nation from the failure of its central economic planning.

Capitalism Helps Us Be Better Individuals

Similar to the old Soviet lifestyle, let’s remember what the typical Venezuelan family of our times worries about on a daily basis. Food to put on the table and the safety of their children. They wake up in the morning wondering how many meals they can afford that day, where to get them from, and how to pay for them.

We, the lucky ones to live in a relatively free-market system, don’t have these kinds of worries. We go to work, get leisure time to be on Facebook, watch TV, be with our families, read books, and enjoy a hobby or two. In short, we have the personal freedom to engage in and enjoy a variety of life events because of capitalism.

But there’s another important motive to desire to live in a capitalist society. We are free to create and come up with all kinds of business ideas, no matter how crazy some might be. Because we don’t have to worry about tomorrow, we have—or make—the time to read, explore, and innovate.

Capitalism makes it possible for us to challenge ourselves, to have goals, and to put forth the sweat to achieve them. It gives us the freedom to try new things and explore new opportunities. It gives us the chance to create more opportunities. It helps us build strong character because when we try, we also fail, and without failure, how do we know we’ve made mistakes? Without failure, how do we know we must make changes?

Individual Freedom Can Only Exist In The Context Of Free Markets

Before immigrating to the U.S., I had to go through a rigorous process. One of the events was the immigration interview with the American counselor who, among many other questions, asked why I escaped Romania and why I wanted to come to America. My short answer was freedom. Then he posed the interesting question: “If America was to go through a period of economic devastation with shortages similar to Romania, would you still feel the same way?” I didn’t think too much about it, and I said, “Yes, of course, as long as I have freedom.”

In retrospect, that was a dumb answer on my part. After several decades, I came to believe that the human condition of individual freedom can only exist in the context of free markets. Shortages are created by the intrusion of the state into the complex activity of the markets, whether it’s price controls or poor allocation of resources.

When shortages are powerful and long enough to dramatically affect lives, people resort to revolt. Large revolts call for serious governmental actions including, but not limited to, eroding or completely eliminating individual rights (the right to free speech and to bear arms), the institution of a police state, and the enacting of a powerful state propaganda system. Capitalism is the path to the individual rights and liberty that build the solid foundation of a free society.

Is America A True Capitalist Economy?

The short answer is no. Most of the world refers to the American system as being a capitalist one. Based on my short definition of capitalism, it is obvious that it is not quite a pure one, and I wish to clarify that the U.S. is not a truly free-market capitalist system.

The economic policy of the 19th Century with limited regulations and minimal taxation attracted the needed capital to our country. The Industrial Revolution made spectacular advancements in human conditions due to the capital concentrated in the region. America lost its number one place due to legislating higher regulations, taxation, and protectionist policies.

But we are still enjoying some of the fruits today. Compared to many countries in the world, we still maintain stronger capitalist traits than most, however Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, New Zealand, and a few other nations who lead the way in economic freedom have surpassed us (see the latest statistics).

What America Needs

Aside from better economic and legislative policies, what America needs is a more intense appreciation of individual freedom and capitalism. Such a crazy idea is not acquired through public schools or becoming a public servant. Young people don’t need more years of schooling with more worthless college degrees and student loans in default. America needs more entrepreneurs and businessmen. It needs more people with drive and ambition, more self-starters, more innovators, more people who are willing to take chances.

It starts in our own backyard, in our home, in our small group, in our community. It starts with loving, involved, and dedicated parents who’d instill the values of personal responsibility and delayed gratification in their children. It continues with an education that entails both theory and hands-on practice in environments conducive to learning how to think independently and how to acquire life- and work-skills. It evolves into a purpose-driven life rich in learning and experiences. And this may be just the beginning of attaining the intellectual maturity to perceive the value that free markets and individual freedom afford most of us.

—

Carmen Alexe escaped Communist Romania during the Cold War. Her motive was individual freedom. She has close to 30 years in the lending industry, currently working as a Commercial Real Estate Consultant. She’s been a real estate investor since 2001. She’s also a passionate Salsa dancer. She’s a free spirit doing research on and practicing how to live free in an unfree world. She shares her zeal for free markets, individual freedom, and personal responsibility by writing on her blog.

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.