A few moments ago Senator Chuck Grassley released an updated version of his memo which substantiates his prior Criminal Referral, against Christopher Steele, to the Department of Justice.

Last Friday Chairman Grassley asked FBI Director Chris Wray to remove the prior redactions and declassify the underlying supportive documents; known as the “Grassley Memo”. FBI Director Wray did not remove all redactions; but did remove most. Here is the newest version (pdf link here):
[scribd id=370918981 key=key-4FYurQaOGkqAtR5CXj4u mode=scroll]
BACK-STORY BELOW:
(more…)
Earlier today President Trump hosted a roundtable discussion with law enforcement, Homeland Security, border security and immigration officials.
[White House] A THREAT TO AMERICAN COMMUNITIES: MS-13 has brought violence, fear, and suffering to communities across the country.
- MS-13, short for Mara Salvatrucha, is a violent transnational gang primarily composed of immigrants or descendants of immigrants from El Salvador.
- MS-13’s motto is “mata, viola, controla” which means “kill, rape, control.”
They commit shocking acts of violence to instill fear, like machete attacks, execution-style murders, gang rape, and human trafficking.
(more…)
President Trump will pull the U.S. out of NAFTA and direct the U.S. Trade Representative to engage in bilateral trade deals with Canada and Mexico individually. There is no other possible alternative and here’s why.
First, the essential problem with NAFTA was an evolution over time. In its current form NAFTA became an exploited doorway into the coveted U.S. market. Asian economic interests, large multinational corporations, invested in Mexico and Canada as a way to work around any direct trade deals with the U.S.
By shipping parts to Mexico and/or Canada; and by deploying satellite manufacturing and assembly facilities in Canada and/or Mexico; China, Asia and to a lesser extent EU corporations exploited a loophole. Through a process of building, assembling or manufacturing their products in Mexico/Canada those foreign corporations can skirt U.S. trade tariffs and direct U.S. trade agreements. The finished foreign products entered the U.S. under NAFTA rules.
Why deal with the U.S. when you can just deal with Mexico, and use NAFTA rules to ship your product directly into the U.S. market?
This exploitative approach, a backdoor to the U.S. market, was the primary reason for massive foreign investment in Canada and Mexico; it was also the primary reason why candidate Donald Trump, now President Donald Trump, wanted to shut down that loophole and renegotiate NAFTA.
(more…)
Oh dear, Prime Minister Rainbow Sparkle-Socks is issuing threats now.
“We aren’t going to take any old deal,” Trudeau said Friday at a town hall in Nanaimo, British Columbia. “Canada is willing to walk away from Nafta if the United States proposes a bad deal.
We won’t be pushed around.” (link)
The backdrop is important context here. Prime Minister Twinkles has been watching Trump, Ross, Mnuchin and Lighthizer closely. Two months ago Twinkles attempted to launch economic leverage by entering direct trade discussions with China; but there’s a problem – Twinkles actually believes Beijing is ‘playful panda’. PM Rainbow-brite doesn’t grasp that Playful Panda is a mask. [Wrong place for leverage.]
Trudeau is willing to open his door to Chairman Xi without realizing once inside Beijing will hold open the door for arriving goods, and shuttle out the Canadian manufacturers. Attachment to China is a one-way proposition; and China only indulged Canada from the context of using the Canadian NAFTA door, as a tariff workaround to gain entry to the U.S. market.
(more…)
After announcing an intent to retire from congress & find a role for himself within the Justice System, congressman Trey Gowdy waxes philosophically about politics having infected the highest ranks of that system. In this role Gowdy is attempting to forward-position himself as the heir apparent to Robert Mueller. The positioning is transparent: The Institutions Must Be saved.
Gowdy has, as a survival instinct, split himself away from accepting what those institutions represent today – and how they have been manipulated. Instead Mr. Gowdy replaces current reality by projecting his vision of the institutional intent as formed by his own moral compass. Unfortunately, corruption is fully metastasized within the upper-ranks. Curative approaches will not work; culling is needed.
The FBI FISA abuses are symptomatic; they are not the disease itself. Chairman Nunes, Chairman Goodlatte and Chairman Grassley have accepted the pathology reports (Horowitz) and are working on a curative treatment. Gowdy cannot bring himself to believe the scope of the pathology within his beloved institutions. Mueller is of the same ideological mind as Gowdy from the position of having created the system that must now be deconstructed and rebuilt anew.
.

If we look upon this Gowdy interview, and his framework of Robert Mueller, from the perspective of Alec Guinness in Bridge On The River Kwai things make sense.
(more…)
Following up to earlier interviews with James Kallstrom, former Assistant Director of the FBI, and Representative John Ratcliffe (R-TX) who has reviewed the underlying FISA application documents, Maria Bartiromo interviews Representative Peter King.
Representative Peter King discusses his disgust with former FBI Director James Comey.
(more…)
Democrats, media, and the aggregate DOJ/FBI intelligence community are finally seeing accountability. With the HPSCI memo now in the rear-view mirror, and the content in the bloodstream of the U.S. electorate, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley is next.

Toward the end of December, the FBI provided the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley, with FBI investigative documents (likely FD-302’s) from their contacts with Christopher Steele. According to most reasonable timing we can discover Steele met with FBI officials sometime around October 1st, 2016.
From the U.K. lawsuit against Christopher Steele (pdf here), Steele admits to having shopped the Clinton-Steele dossier to U.S. media outlets “in person” in late September (New York Times, WaPo, New Yorker and CNN), and mid-October, 2016 (New York Times, WaPo, and Yahoo News), per instructions from Glenn Simpson (Fusion GPS):

Additionally, in late October, 2016, Christopher Steele briefed Mother Jones via Skype.
According to the released HPSCI intelligence memo, the FBI sought a FISA application based on the Steele Dossier on October 21st, 2016. From those UK court records at least two briefings with reporters, containing five outlets, took place prior to the FBI using the Clinton-Steele dossier in their FISA application.
The “late September” briefings with the New York Times, Washington Post, Yahoo News, New Yorker and CNN took place prior to Christopher Steele meeting with FBI officials early October. The implication therein is that the FBI had to know prior to their October 21st, 2016, court application that the information they were presenting to the FISA court was being heavily shopped to media outlets. This would be immediately disqualifying.
(more…)
With the new year comes more Main Street winning; and the distinction between Wall Street’s economy and Main Street’s economy becomes stunningly clear.
The January jobs report showed a gain of 200,000 U.S. jobs, and more importantly, a 2.9% year-over-year growth in wages. –SOURCE– [Biggest wage rate jump since the phoney trillion stimulus-funded growth mid-2009.] We continue to remind of our two-year prediction that stunning wage growth will evidence in Q2 of 2018 (April-July)… today’s report is only the preview of that wage growth cycle.

Construction reported by the biggest gain by sector with 36,000. Bars and restaurants added 31,000 and health care was up 21,000. Manufacturing also showed a gain of 15,000 and durable goods-related industries added 18,000.
“Perhaps the biggest positive surprise on hiring is the continued surge for the goods-producing sector with manufacturing and construction leading the way,” said Mark Hamrick, Bankrate.com’s senior economic analyst. (link)

THE WHITE HOUSE – WASHINGTON – February 2, 2018
The Honorable Devin Nunes Chairman, House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence
United States Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Mr. Chairman:
On January 29,2018, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (hereinafter “the Committee”) voted to disclose publicly a memorandum containing classified information provided to the Committee in connection with its oversight activities (the “Memorandum,” which is attached to this letter). As provided by clause II(g) of Rule X of the House of Representatives, the Committee has forwarded this Memorandum to the President based on its determination that the release of the Memorandum would serve the public interest.
(more…)
There continue to be questions about the substance behind the pending release of the House Intelligence Committee memo. With that release in mind, today it is worthwhile remembering this is the beginning of exposing the corruption within the DOJ not the end.

For several years the U.S. justice department has maintained an attitude of non-accountability within its ranks. The Obama years elevated that attitude and provided multiple examples of a DOJ gone rogue.
A complicit media enables that attitude by engineering a false narrative the U.S. Justice Department was/is an independent fourth branch of government; unaccountable to congress and entirely separate from the executive branch.
The House Intelligence Memo is simply using the example of currently known FISA abuse to open the door and show the U.S. electorate how corrupt this unaccountable institution has become. Behind that door are very uncomfortable realities for all of those who constructed the weaponized agency; and also those who have benefited from it.
Consider:
(more…)