When you plant your tree in another man’s orchard, you might end up paying for your own apples; it’s a risk you take…
….and President Trump knows how to use that leverage better than anyone could possibly fathom; because in this metaphor Beijing relies upon the U.S. for both the seeds and the harvest.  President Trump drops the $200b M.O.A.T (Mother of All Tariffs):

White House – On Friday, I announced plans for tariffs on $50 billion worth of imports from China. These tariffs are being imposed to encourage China to change the unfair practices identified in the Section 301 action with respect to technology and innovation. They also serve as an initial step toward bringing balance to our trade relationship with China.

However and unfortunately, China has determined that it will raise tariffs on $50 billion worth of United States exports. China apparently has no intention of changing its unfair practices related to the acquisition of American intellectual property and technology. Rather than altering those practices, it is now threatening United States companies, workers, and farmers who have done nothing wrong.

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Well, here’s a start.  Eight House Republicans have asked Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz for the specific names of FBI employees mentioned in last week’s report on the Hillary Clinton email investigation:

The letter is signed by Representatives: Andy Biggs, R-Ariz.; Dave Brat, R-Va.; Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn.; Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., Paul Gosar, R-Ariz.; Jody Hice, R-Ga., Jim Jordan, R-Ohio; and Ralph Norman, R-S.C.
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DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen appeared with White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders to discuss the ongoing issues with border security and specifically the more recent increase in arriving alien minors, most unaccompanied by parents, and the subsequent problems.
Excellent briefing by DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen:

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As many long time CTH readers will note, the current crisis is an outcome of prior administration policy and the HHS decision to throw massive amounts of money at immigration and creating a business model for human trafficking using taxpayer funds.

SEE HERE

Bottom line, as long as U.S. Taxpayer funds can be sent to private corporations; and those corporations can then fund the human traffickers; and those human traffickers can then provide the aliens that generate the taxpayer funds; none of this will change.  It is a business model.
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As anticipated the majority of the Senate Judiciary hearing was a two-step.  Most of the questions presented to Inspector General Horowitz and FBI Director Chris Wray did little to advance the understanding of the issues at hand.  There was only one round of questions, several missing senators, and no senators for the duration. The hearing wrapped up early shortly after 5:00pm.
Here’s the only three question segments that approached the central issues.  We discover that former FBI Director James Comey is the subject of an ongoing investigation.  We also discover there is a grand jury impaneled.
Senator Lindsey Graham:

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Senator John Kennedy:
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The White House responds to the growing influx of illegal aliens seeking to exploit a loophole through the use of children seeking asylum to enter the U.S.

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To really absorb the history of this issue we must analyze current year events through the reality of prior year events.

CHANGE THE LAWS!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2018

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President Trump delivers remarks at a meeting with the National Space Council:

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For about eight months columnist Andrew McCarthy appeared on television and wrote dozens of articles about the slow-drip of information stemming from the Trump-Russia probe and the IG Horowitz investigation.  Almost all of the articles were sympathetic to the institutions being challenged. However, in mid-May a funny thing happened.
The weekend before May 15th McCarthy actually broke down and read the six-month-old Lisa Page and Peter Strzok text messages he had been delivering opinion on; and guess what happened?  Yup, his perspective changed within a period of 36-hours, and with it – a radical shift in tone and delivery.  In essence, he red-pilled himself.
What does that have to do with FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Jeff Sessions?  Please bear with me.

When Christopher Wray appeared before the media three hours after the IG report, one thing was stunningly obvious: he never read the report.  Wray might have been briefed on a summary of the report, but there was no way Director Wray actually read the documented substance, the details and the facts, within the center of the report.
As a direct consequence Chris Wray looked and sounded like Baghdad Bob standing in front of the cameras.  “There are no Americans bombing Baghdad”, as the explosions are seen over his shoulders, was akin to “there’s no structural or institutional bias” as nom de plume FBI agents madly wave “F**k Trump” banners in the background.
It was an absurd display of a disconnect from the institution he is leading.
If you only read the executive summary of the IG report, you might not see how ridiculously absurd Director Wray’s presentation was.  In the old school corporate world we used to have a saying: “never allow your leadership to be compromised“; obviously those who briefed Wray had no issue watching him make a professional ass out of himself. Then again, perhaps that was the intention.
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Appearing on Fox News Sunday, House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy discusses the recently released Inspector General report on FBI and DOJ conduct in the run-up to the 2016 election and the exoneration of Hillary Clinton.

Additionally, Chairman Gowdy discusses the meeting held last Friday night with FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein. In the meeting Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, along with a group of house chairmen (Gowdy, Nunes, Goodlatte), told the FBI and DOJ the House of Representatives will move forward with “floor action” to enforce compliance.

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General David Petraeus was arrested for leaving his classified schedule on mistress Paula Broadwell’s nightstand.  Kristian Saucier was arrested for taking a classified photograph on a submarine.  Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin had dozens of classified Clinton emails on a laptop and…

There is a great deal of inconsistent application of law surrounding classified information. There is also a great deal of fatigue surrounding discussion of those inconsistent applications.  Contradictions, inconsistency and obtuse justifications are as rampant in our midst as the political narratives shaping them.  Perhaps that’s by design.

We begin reading Chapter 11 of the IG Report with a growing acceptance that not only is there a need for a special counsel, but there is a brutally obvious need for multiple special counsels; each given a specific carve-out investigation that comes directly from the content of the Inspector General report.   This issue of the handling of the Weiner/Abedin laptop screams for a special counsel investigation on that facet alone.  Why?

Well, consider this from page #388 (emphasis mine):

Midyear agents obtained a copy of the Weiner laptop from NYO immediately after the search warrant was signed on October 30.

The laptop was taken directly to Quantico where the FBI’s Operational Technology Division (OTD) began processing the laptop. The Lead Analyst told us that given the volume of emails on the laptop and the difficulty with de-duplicating the emails that “at least for the first few days, the scale of what we’re doing seem[ed] really, really big.”

Strzok told us that OTD was able “to do some amazing things” to “rapidly de-duplicate” the emails on the laptop, which significantly lowered the number of emails that the Midyear team would have to individually review. Strzok stated that only after that technological breakthrough did he begin to think it was “possible we might wrap up before the election.”  (pg 388)

The key takeaway here is two-fold.  First, the laptop is in the custody of the FBI; that’s important moving forward (I’ll explain later).  Also, specifically important, FBI Agent Peter Strzok, the lead investigative authority in the Hillary Clinton MYE (Mid-Year-Exam), is explaining to the IG how they were able to process an exhaustive volume of emails (350,000) and Blackberry communications (344,000) in a few days; [Oct 30 to Nov 5]

Note: “OTD was able “to do some amazing things to rapidly de-duplicate” the emails on the laptop.”

OK, you got that?

Now lets look at the very next page, #389 (again, emphasis mine):

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