Gotta love the professionally obtuse former DNI James Clapper.
As much as he is a stuttering doofus, and therein showcases his political value for the former administration; and to the extent that Clapper has previously stated there was no attempt by the DOJ/FBI to gain a FISA authorized approval for surveillance on any Trump campaign officials: “none that I’m aware of“; …it is always valuable to listen to Clapper because he has a tendency to, well, to let slip stuff that makes the black hats cringe.
Cue the audio visual “slippage.”  Inside tonight’s interview by Jake Tapper, former DNI James Clapper now unwittingly refutes his previous assertion of “no Trump FISA warrant“, and simultaneously lets it slip out that the Clinton/Steele dossier was not used in gaining origination authority for FISA-702 surveillance, but rather for an “extension” of a previous application for FISA-702 surveillance.  WATCH:

06:48 ..”as I understand it, this was simply an extension of uh, the original, uh, FISA request.  Meaning that, or implying, that apparently, there was information that was considered, uh, ‘valuable’, that was being obtained, via the initial FISA request.”
“FISA’s have, uh, finite dates. Uh, in other words they have deadlines; they aren’t indefinite… So when the time was up for the initial FISA report, FISA request, then it was time to get an extension. So on its face, I don’t know that the dossier played, very much, in this at all”…

Well, that’s interesting.  I wonder who gave Clapper the “as I understand it” part? Now let’s go back to March 5th 2017 and review what DNI James Clapper said about the Department of Justice getting FISA-702 surveillance authority on Trump campaign officials.
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Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appears on CNBC to discuss ongoing trade initiatives including NAFTA, China and the more broad Asia background.  Additionally, Wilburine discusses growth in GDP and anticipated economic enhancements from the tax cut legislation.

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Earlier today it was announced that ADP private payroll growth for January has exceeded 234,000 jobs gained.   “The job market juggernaut marches on,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said in a statement. “Given the strong January job gain, 2018 is on track to be the eighth consecutive year in which the economy creates over 2 million jobs.  (read full story on payroll report)
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President Donald J Trump has released the following video as a recap of the 2018 State of Our Union. Our union is strong because of the people within it.

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On Monday night January 29th, 2018, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence met to discuss the release of a classified committee memo that outlined corruption within the U.S. Justice Department, and how the DOJ/FBI used fraudulent material to apply for FISA surveillance warrants on American citizens.
Below is the committee transcript from that meeting. Democrats (minority) opposed the release of the Intelligence Memo; Republicans (majority) supported it. The minority wanted to distribute a memo of their own; the majority supported the request of the minority so long as they followed the same process as previous.  (link to pdf)
[scribd id=370457752 key=key-ZxrY7RlW83UobxTBpOnN mode=scroll]
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There are multiple corrupt officials inside the U.S. Department of Justice.  This has never been in doubt since DOJ and FBI officials made direct admissions to the FISA court that they intentionally manipulated the court system for political purposes (April ’17 FISC pdf).
After the material admissions to the court; and against revelations from sunlight upon the activity showing the DOJ and FBI manipulated the FISC to gain surveillance authority to spy on Donald Trump campaign officials; the issue shifted toward disclosure of the activity, evidence of scale of abuse and ultimately, accountability.
Accountability for the weaponization of intelligence has been the ongoing goal of House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes.  Explaining what took place leads to Chairman Nunes creating the intelligence memo.  However, it is the underlying classified information behind the memo where evidence of ‘how’ the apparatus was weaponized will be found.

Current and former officials within the Department of Justice (national security division) and FBI (counterintelligence division) are at the heart of the malfeasance.  Those officials have a vested interest in trying to stop the public from seeing what took place.  They are aided by a political media apparatus who are attempting to shield the corrupt officials due to aligned political opposition against the current President.
The corrupt FBI officials -remaining inside the DOJ/FBI- know they can rely on their media allies to assist them in keeping what took place hidden from public review.  Today, those FBI entities attempt to cloud the Nunes memo and shape a narrative.  Their release:
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Tonight President Donald J Trump delivers one of the most widely covered speeches of the presidential year when he addresses a full congress during the State of The Union address.
The start time is 9:00pm, with speech remarks scheduled for 9:10pm EST. Every broadcast station and cable news outlet will be covering the speech.  There are multiple livestream options available.

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NAFTA renegotiation round six ended yesterday in Canada will no substantive progress on the most contentious trade issues.  One negotiation chapter on corruption was closed, but there was little to no agreement on much else.
Each of the primary Trade Representatives gave a closing statement at the conclusion of Round #6.  U.S.T.R. Lighthizer blasted Canada for attempting to inject schemes, fraud and deceptive dealing within the negotiations. Princess Rainbow Sparkles from Canada tried to pretend the Canadian proposal was realistic.  It was all awkward.  Hopefully President Trump will soon get us out of this nonsense. Lighthizer Transcript below video:

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Ambassador Lighthizer: It is a pleasure to be here in Quebec. Montreal is one of the great cities of the world, and I have not been back in many years, and I’ve missed it. I used to come here in the 70s and 80s with my wife and children to go to Mont-Tremblant and learn how to ski. We loved the French culture, we loved the excellent food, the wonderful skiing and as I recall, it was cold all the time. That hasn’t changed at least.
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Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) initiated a massive anti-corruption operation last year.  Today, just as a Qatari delegation arrives in DC and concedes to the terms of the alliance, Reuters is reporting the resulting Saudi asset seizures total more than $106 billion.

RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s government has arranged to seize more than $100 billion through financial settlements with businessmen and officials detained in its crackdown on corruption, the attorney general said on Tuesday.
The announcement appeared to represent a political victory for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who launched the purge last November and predicted at the time that it would net about $100 billion in settlements.

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The House of Representatives GOP leadership team held a press briefing earlier today.  During the Q&A Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, was asked about the House Intelligence Committee memo that has been released to the Executive Branch.The full presser is below.
The memo remarks by Speaker Ryan occur at 15:00 of the video.  Notice the appropriate, constitutional, and purposeful explanation of the process.  The executive branch (President Trump) and legislative branch (Ryan, Nunes, etc.) are continuing to emphasize the structural framework of U.S. government, and the seperation of powers therein, to return the rule of law during the Trump administration.  This is NOT accidental. [Video prompted to start @15:00]

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The prior administration weaponized the executive branch against its political enemies.  Repeat: The prior administration weaponized the executive branch against its political enemies.  U.S. citizens, Americans, were targeted by corrupt officials within the Justice Department for political purposes.  Never lose this critical reference point and context.
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The media narrative engineers are busy at work attempting to cloud the constitutional framework behind the accurate, lawful, sequence of steps surrounding the Nunes House Intel Memo.  Don’t fall for the tricks.
The legislative branch has now voted in committee to declassify the House Intelligence Memo on FISA-702 abuse, and systemic fraudulent DOJ/FBI use therein.  The memo has been sent to the executive branch for review and public release approval.

The White House has five days to review. Any DOJ or FBI officials who have a position against public release are now responsible to make their case known to the Office of the President who is in charge of them, and the executive branch.
Specifically because the Chief Executive (President Trump) granted permission for FBI Director Christopher Wray to see the intelligence memo prior to the House Intel vote; Director Wray and Asst. AG Rosenstein had an obligation to debrief the executive on their findings. That’s why Wray and Rosenstein were at the West Wing yesterday.  However, the vote last evening transferred the declassification decision to the executive.
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