Matt Taibbi writes a lengthy column calling out his colleagues for abandoning all pretense of civil liberties in an effort to ‘resist’ President Trump.

Within the column Taibbi walks-through the ridiculous Russia collusion story and notes the necessary use of the media pretending not to know what took place within the Obama administration; including what continues today in the prosecution of Flynn.

MATT TAIBBI – […] ” After Edward Snowden’s 2013 revelations about mass data collection, a series of internal investigations began showing officials were breaking rules against spying on specific Americans via this NSA program. Searches were conducted too often and without proper justification, and the results were shared with too many people, including private contractors. By October, 2016, the FISA court was declaring that systematic overuse of so-called “702” searches were a “very serious fourth Amendment issue.”

In later court documents it came out that the FBI conducted 3.1 million such searches in 2017 alone. As the Brennan Center put it, “almost certainly… the total number of U.S. person queries run by the FBI each year is well into the millions.”

(more…)

Chopper pressers are the best pressers.  President Trump delivers remarks to the press pool as he departs the White House for Camp David.  [Video and Transcript Below]

A curious group accompanies President Trump to Camp David this weekend along with chief of staff Mark Meadows.  POTUS is bringing House Leader Kevin McCarthy, GOP Reps. Dan Crenshaw, Matt Gaetz, Devin Nunes, Jim Jordan, Elise Stefanik and Lee Zeldin.

The House group represents a team well versed in the Obamagate and Spygate issues.  Along with the need to organize a political effort against Pelosi’s $3 trillion spending fiasco; perhaps the team is doing some big ugly political planning.

.

[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: So we’ll be going to Camp David. We have a lot of meetings scheduled. I think they’ll be very successful meetings. We’re getting a lot of gear out. We’re getting a lot of gowns out — protective equipment. And the governors have all been very thankful. We received a lot of calls today from governors. They’re very thankful for the job we’re doing. And that’s good.

Do you have any questions? Please.

(more…)

President Trump delivers remarks at a Presidential Recognition Ceremony: Hard Work, Heroism, and Hope. Anticipated start time 4:00pm ET.

UPDATE: Video and Transcript Added:

.

[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Please. Those are friendly truckers. They’re on our side. It’s almost a celebration in a way. Please sit down. Please.

The First Lady and I are thrilled to welcome you this afternoon for our second event recognizing extraordinary Americans who have responded to the invisible enemy — we know what the invisible enemy is; we’ve learned a lot — with exceptional bravery and commitment and love. And we appreciate it very much. Great job, fantastic job.

(more…)

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has been in discussions for several years with both TSMC and Intel to build advanced chip manufacturing plants in the U.S. and extract U.S. supply chain needs from China and southeast Asia.  It appears his efforts, and the emphasis on global supply-chain shifts from President Trump, are getting results.

According to numerous media reports Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) is likely to announce this week they will build an advanced chip manufacturing facility in Arizona.  A manufacturing facility for advanced 5 nanometer chip manufacturing is a steep investment decision costing around $10 billion.

This shift in a high-tech supply chain will align with President Trump’s prior discussions with Tim Cook the CEO of Apple which led to a decision to invest in Texas.  TSMC is a chip supplier for Apple products; and Apple is moving to the 5nm processors in new devices. It looks like the movement of advanced industrial products away from China is underway.

(Via Appleinsider) – Apple supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is set to announce that it plans to build an advanced chip factory in Arizona.

Taiwan-based TSMC is the world’s largest contract manufacturer of silicon chipsets and has long been Apple’s primary supplier of A-series chips.

(more…)

President Trump sits down for a lengthy hour-long interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo.  The President discusses coronavirus, the economy, China, trade, Flynn, the election, and much more.  55 minute interview taped yesterday, aired today.

(more…)

It likely takes a lot of main justice approvals to serve a search warrant for the device of the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI).  The Chairman of the powerful committee also sits on the congressional oversight team known as the gang-of-eight.

According to the Los Angeles Times the FBI served a search warrant on North Carolina Republican Senator Richard Burr Wednesday. The warrant appears connected to an ongoing investigation on whether or not Burr violated a law that prevents members of Congress from trading insider information they learn from their work.  According to the report federal agents seized Burr’s cell phone after they served the warrant at his residence in the Washington DC area.

The sketchy guardian of swamp secrets is retiring at the end of his term so he’s probably just willing to wait out the investigation and negotiate with the DC justice-tier to pay a fine and move on.  DC has a totally different set of laws and outcomes than everywhere else.  Any fine, and any resulting legal expenses, will likely be paid by a lobbying firm or political interest group who previously contracted with, and received benefit from, Senator Burr.

It’s the way of the swamp.

First things first: ♦Understand Obama’s Surveillance Operation HERE.  ♦Michael Flynn wasn’t under a FISA (Title-1) HERE …. that’s the background.

Devin Nunes appears with Lou Dobbs to discuss the recent list of Obama-era officials who unmasked NSA intercepts of Michael Flynn talking to foreign government officials.  Rep. Nunes reminds the audience that Flynn is only one person within a much larger group of Trump transition team members who were under surveillance by Team Obama.

(more…)

A few points on the unmasking before Rand Paul response.  First, the release today is only what the Obama team did regarding unmasking General Flynn.  As Devin Nunes previously outlined, there are many more Trump transition team members who were unmasked as the Obama team conducted surveillance on the incoming administration.

Second, the NSA “reports” are related to actual transcripts, emails and text messages of communication; not just various intelligence interpretations of those communications.

As Senator Rand Paul shares, the effort of the Obama and Biden administration to unmask their political opposition during the transition; and then use widespread distribution and leaks to the media to push a specific one-sided view; is the weaponization of the intelligence apparatus to target political opposition.  That’s the major issue:

.

Again, a reminder, these reports surround only NSA intercepts. Simultaneous to this there was an ongoing FBI counterintelligence operation using FISA surveillance (Carter Page) and non-fisa targeted FBI surveillance of Michael Flynn.

(more…)

For the sake of understanding this specific release, “unmasking” occurs when the NSA, eavesdropping on foreign communications, sweeps up communications with U.S. citizen. That is known as “incidental collection.”

When the intelligence about that communication is shared across the government, the names of U.S. citizens in the communication are typically concealed or masked to protect their identities. However, the names can be unmasked if U.S. officials make the request.

In this release [pdf here], the Obama-era NSA was monitoring various foreign government officials and within their communication they picked up contacts with incoming President-elect Trump’s National Security Advisor Lt. General Michael Flynn.  This release only includes NSA intercepts; not other intelligence agency reports; only the NSA.

The NSA generated [redacted number] of reports based on those foreign contacts. The reports are actual transcripts of the conversations.  The Obama-era officials then asked the NSA to unmask the name of General Flynn so they could see the content and context of the calls.  Current DNI Ric Grenell has assembled a list of who asked the NSA to unmask incoming NSA Michael Flynn from November 8, 2016 through January 31, 2017.

It is important to remember, these intercepts are part of the normal function of monitoring foreign communications.  There is nothing nefarious about the monitoring and there is nothing nefarious about a foreign person contacting the incoming administration, via General Flynn, to begin preparing for the change in administrations.

However, what is completely alarming and disturbing, is the extent to which the Obama administration went to share the contacts and transcripts of the calls with a myriad of government officials.  That’s where the list comes in.

(more…)

In response to Judge Emmet Sullivan announcing a delay in Flynn ruling to allow third party amicus briefs to be filed with the court, Michael Flynn’s defense counsel files a motion in opposition. [Cloud pdf Here]  Embed pdf below

In opposition to the delay Attorney Sidney Powell notes Judge Sullivan’s earlier ruling of December 20, 2017, disallowing amicus briefs in this case.

(more…)