Repost:

A “Countermeasure” is a measure or action taken to counter or offset a preceding one.

Politically speaking, the deployment of countermeasures is a tactic used by professional politicians in Washington DC to counter incoming public inquiry and protect themselves from anger expressed by the electorate.
Weaponized government takes action and creates victims. Beyond the strategy – the countermeasures are politicians assigned a role to control the incoming righteous inquiry from voters who find out about the weaponized or corrupt governmental action.
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Imran Awan pleaded guilty today to one count of bank fraud.  However, all of the more serious charges; that were based on intelligence compromises and national security; and that naturally would implicate members of congress; were dropped and dispatched by federal prosecutors.
Add in the date of the announcement today, when everyone is headed to a long July 4th holiday weekend, and voilà we see the all-too-familiar Potomac Two-Step:

(Via Daily Caller)  An assistant US attorney said Tuesday he would not prosecute Imran Awan, a former systems administrator for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and other Democrats, for any crimes on Capitol Hill in a plea agreement that had him plead guilty to one count of bank fraud.
Only one person sat at the prosecutors’ table: J.P. Coomey, who unsuccessfully prosecuted New Jersey Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez for corruption and was only added to the case Monday. There was no sign of Michael Marando, who had previously led the prosecution.
Coomey did not object to the removal of Awan’s GPS monitor, said he would not oppose a sentence of probation, and agreed to drop charges against his wife, fellow former systems administrative Hina Alvi.  (continue reading)

Reminder Here

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte has filed a subpoena to compel open hearing testimony from FBI Agent Peter Strzok, July 10th, 2018 at 10:00am.
Chairman Goodlatte tweets notification (link); Committee Announces/Schedules (link)

Washington, D.C. – On Tuesday, July 10, 2018 at 10:00 a.m., the House Committees on the Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform will hold a joint hearing on “Oversight of FBI and DOJ Actions Surrounding the 2016 Election: Testimony by FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok.” The House Judiciary Committee today issued a subpoena to Peter Strzok – a former senior official in the FBI’s counterintelligence division – to testify publicly before the Committees regarding FBI and DOJ actions surrounding the 2016 presidential election. (link)

Strzok’s attorney has indicated he would not comply with the request: “Having sharpened their knives behind closed doors, the committee would now like to drag back Special Agent Strzok and have him testify in public — a request that we originally made and the committee denied,” Goelman said. “What’s being asked of Special Agent Strzok is to participate in what anyone can recognize as a trap.”  (CNN Reports)

By now everyone has reported about ABC journalist Brian Ross and his Producer Rhonda Swartz resigning from the network.  However, almost everyone pointing back to Ross’s fake news report on Michael Flynn in December; and almost no-one is pointing out the more obvious motive for the resignation.
Brian Ross was almost guaranteed to be “Reporter 4” in the federal indictment of Senate  former senior senate intelligence committee staffer James Wolfe.  The notorious Senate Intelligence “leaker”.

CTH originally pointed this out when the details of the indictment were released (full pdf below), and research was possible to determine each reporter.  It did not come as a surprise to see the staff from this specific committee leaking secret and top-secret classified information.  The committee rots from the head down.
According to the indictment Wolfe was notified by the FBI of a classified intelligence leak investigation on/around October 30th, 2017.  From the indictment we see that Wolfe was interviewed and confronted by FBI investigators on December 15th, 2017.  After admitting he lied to those FBI investigators Wolfe resigned from his position.
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President Donald Trump meets with Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte in the Oval Office at the White House.
During remarks President Trump notes a phone call with Mexico’s winning presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador; and ongoing interviews/discussions with possible Supreme Court nominees.  [Four SCOTUS nominees were interviewed today and three or four more will come in the next few days.]
On the trade front President Trump notes the ongoing issues with the WTO (World Trading Organization), and a possible confrontation looming over structural changes needed to reset global trade disparities and establish open markets.

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Earlier today in response to questioning about the current Democrat platform to abolish ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), President Trump said he hoped his political opposition would run on that issue because they are out of touch with the American voter.
A Harvard Harris poll (full pdf below) shows President Trump’s instincts are spot-on.  1,448 polled voters. [Poll ideology: Democrat 37%, Republican 32%, Independent 29%]

An overwhelming majority of American registered voters, 70 percent, support tougher immigration enforcement to include a border wall (60% support), deportation (64% support), and repatriation of all illegal border crossers including families with Children (61% support). Additionally 69% of voters do not support the position of disbanding I.C.E.
♦ Page #67 – Do you think current border security is adequate or inadequate? 61% Inadequate / 39% Adequate
♦ Page #69 – Do you support or oppose building a combination of physical and electronic barriers across the U.S.-Mexico border?  60% Support / 40% Oppose
♦ Page #72 – Do you think that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, known as ICE, should be disbanded or not?   31% Disbanded / 69% Not Disbanded
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White House national security adviser John Bolton appears on Face The Nation with Margaret Brennan to discuss North Korea and Russia.  Within the interview Bolton says the U.S. could dismantle North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs within a year if the North Koreans committed to scrapping their arsenal in accordance with the agreement reached in Singapore last month.

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The BBC’s condescending Emily Maitlis demands support for the European Union and challenges the sovereign authority of Hungary to self-determination.   Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó was having none of that nonsense, and pushed back against little Miss feelings.

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This occurs on the heels of Italy rebuking the EU immigration platform; and a weakened German Chancellor Angela Merkel having to beg political allies in Bavaria for support:

BERLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s political future rests in the hands of the Christian Social Union (CSU) on Sunday, when the Bavarian party’s leadership meets to decide whether to accept migration deals she brought back from Brussels.

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Within the German economy the auto-sector holds the largest political influence.  Because of this dynamic all German politicians kneel at the knee of the big industrial auto manufacturers.  It has been said that losing support from within the auto-sector is much worse on a German politician than losing support from party or parliament.
Because of this dynamic; and specifically because the German auto-sector is dependent on the United States as their biggest customer, President Trump holds leverage over German Chancellor Angela Merkel.  This makes Fraulein Merkel unhappy.

President Trump wants three EU issues resolved: 1) Germany to contribute the minimum 2% of GDP for their own NATO defense.  2) Germany/EU to support enhanced sanctions against Iran; and  3) President Trump wants all German/EU protectionist trade barriers and tariffs lowered or eliminated – and new trade deals negotiated.
To gain momentum on these initiatives, President Trump is using the economics of trade as leverage.  Trump has suggested a 20% tariff on all EU automobiles shipped into the U.S. [The same standard now likely proposed toward Canada]  The German auto-sector, and as a consequence the German economy, simply cannot survive without low cost access to the U.S. market, their biggest customer.
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Retiring ICE Director Thomas Homan had a message for congress, politicians and media on his last day in office.   Namely all need to get their facts straight.

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