Becoming the fourth official Democrat candidate for a White House bid in 2020, Democrat Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has announced her intention to run for President.
Senator Gillibrand made the announcement in a rather goofy and awkward appearance on the Late Show with Steven Colbert.  Senator wind-tester doesn’t stand a chance; no-one likes her, but it is a fun intellectual exercise to start putting the various candidate parallels together in the growing field of Democrats against the prior 2016 field of 17 Republicans.

TONIGHT: @SenGillibrand stops by @colbertlateshow to announce that she is forming an exploratory committee to run for President of the United States! #LSSC pic.twitter.com/vPUpF1gs8z

— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) January 15, 2019

Knowing it’s likely the ♦UniParty DNC is following a similar ♦UniParty RNC strategy, we  can start to put the personal characteristics and political traits together and contrast them against 2016.  Here’s the way it looks so far:
(more…)

Amid the ongoing partial government shutdown; and with the unwillingness of Democrats to negotiate on border security funding; and coming on the heels of a massive Puerto Rico junket funded by K-Street lobbyists; it may have been a bridge-too-far for Democrats to start another eleven day vacation on Thursday…..  So they cancelled it, sort of.
House Leader Steny Hoyer technically cancelled (in writing only) the recess (to keep the talking points out of the hands of the opposition), while factually telling membership to go ahead and take the vacation but be prepared to return if needed.

.
Everything you need to know about political Democrats is in that interview. •Kate Bourdain never interrupts the talking points. •Hoyer focuses on the optics of politics and maximum political value, not actual policy. •Hoyer frames the narrative without pushback.
(more…)

President Trump’s AG nominee William Barr testifies to the Senate Judiciary Committee about his legal views and perspectives.  Overall post-testimonial punditry converges on the outlook Mr. Barr will be easily confirmed with broad bipartisan support.
Rather than agree or disagree with various opinions CTH is providing a full video of the Barr hearing below with a recap video as presented by Global News:

.
My own personal view is that William Barr will likely reset the DOJ ‘status quo‘ to the institutional construct that existed prior to the Obama DOJ (Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch) era. That is to say: Barr will attempt to remove obvious weaponization and overt political motives behind every action taken by the U.S. Justice Department.
However, it also appears the most purposeful goal for Mr. Barr, in direct alignment with his close personal friend Robert Mueller, will be the preservation of the DOJ institution as a historic apparatus. That “preserve-the-institution” at all costs means Barr will necessarily have to bury any/all systemic corruption to achieve a larger institutional goal.
I Do not anticipate Barr will deliver any sunlight to expose how badly corrupted the DOJ has become. Instead he’ll likely apply bondo to cover the rot and apply a fresh coat of paint.
(more…)

Well, here we are again; another leaked transcript, this time from DOJ Official Bruce Ohr. And as with the prior two transcript leaks, we don’t get the raw information.  So let me first, necessarily, reassert our CTH position on these “leaks”.
Leaking is bad, period; in all directions. Because *leaking* is simply a method, a mechanism, to direct and control the focus of sunlight upon illicit action. Regardless of whether you support or oppose the message within any individual leak; the leak itself does not expose corruption…. only full and unfiltered information can expose corruption.  That means we need the actual raw transcripts to make determinations for ourselves.
As a factual standard for honesty and sunlight, CTH would never describe a transcript where we could not provide the reader with the raw and underlying material.  We have held this standard for many years; most of you know that. The truth has no agenda.

That said, someone is leaking congressional transcripts and a current tug-of-war exists between two opposing narrative engineers.  The heavily promoted New York Times article last Friday, was based on leaks of James Baker Transcripts, from sources who were responding to the leaks from other sources that were given to the Epoch Times.   Each side in the DOJ/FBI corruption story is currently leaking to advance their interests.
Three congressional committees have requested the release of witness transcripts.  HPSCI via Devin Nunes (September 2018); and the joint House Judiciary/Oversight committee (December 2018).  Congressional allies of President Trump (Nunes, Jordan, Meadows and Collins) are being blocked by corrupt cabinet members within the current administration.
(more…)

If you wait long enough, the Lawfare actors brazenly expose their intents.  Cue the example today as former SDNY U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara showcases the ideology behind the DOJ and FBI weaponizing their offices based on political policy differences.
It has been outlined that President Trump would prefer to withdraw the U.S. from NATO. Trump’s view stems from NATO allies (Germany) engaging with NATO adversaries (Russia) with strategic energy policy (gas pipeline) to benefit Russia; while simultaneously demanding the U.S. taxpayer fund the defense of Germany (and EU) from Russia.
In response to reports that President Trump may withdraw from NATO, a strategic U.S. policy shift, Preet Bharara demands “impeachment and conviction”:

This clear example evidences the mentality within the DOJ and FBI that is becoming more openly obvious.  The institutions of the DOJ were/are weaponized, against candidate and president Trump, based on political differences and viewpoints.

Love this. I especially love how much this draws out the elitist pontificating opposition; now tone-deaf giddy as they try and ridicule ordinary All American fast food.
POTUS Trump knows exactly what he’s doing.
Please Democrats; please media; please make fun of this….

(more…)

There’s a vastly different opinion amid some who review the action of Rod Rosenstein and Robert Mueller.  CTH has noted a common corrupt theme amid the DOJ and FBI that crosses both the Obama and Trump administrations: A priority to preserve the institution; regardless of how corrupt the institution is; and regardless of how much collateral damage those system administrators will create in their effort toward that preservation goal.

Within the larger discussion, sometimes comments hit the proverbial nail. I think this one does exactly that:

RTLW – “Not ALL FBI Agents are moral pariahs. 60% are good American patriots who joined the Agency in good faith expecting to serve their Country and put bad people behind bars.

The other 40% are Peter Strozk and Lisa Page. ALL of FBI HQ is populated by the Strozk/Page types. Recruitment of this type of Agent started under Mueller and continued under Comey. Mueller drove out all of the old school “Brick Agents” shortly after he became Director.

Mueller implemented an “up or out” policy where all SSAs were required to move to DC and do Headquarters time or lose their GS 14 pay grade. This policy change by Mueller purposely targeted the most senior Agents in the FBI who had finally earned the right to move their family to a medium sized office in fly over country, had teenage kids and were living a comfortable life.

(more…)

White House Senior Advisor to President Trump Kellyanne Conway answers questions from national narrative engineers assigned to the White House – January 14th, 2019.

(more…)

Against the backdrop of a New York Times article attempting to justify the FBI opening a counterintelligence operation against Donald Trump the current narrative du-jour is to claim the investigation was considered as an outcome of the firing of James Comey in 2017.  This is factually false.
FBI Director James Comey outlined the specifics of when the counterintelligence operation began during his March 20, 2017 testimony. Pay close attention. FBI Director James Comey -together with NSA head Admiral Mike Rogers- testified to congress specifically about the timing and notification (first three minutes of the video):

Rep. Stefanik: [01:12] …”when did you notify the White House, the DNI or congressional leadership”?
James Comey: …”good question. Congressional leadership, sometime recently they were briefed on the nature of the investigation, as I said. Obviously the department of justice has been aware of it all along”…

Watch the first 3 minutes of that video. Notice the discomfort etc. We have previously outlined why THAT is such a big deal –SEE HERE– Comey is discussing the notification to congress that took place approximately a week earlier. Prior to that congressional notification FBI Director Comey admits to keeping congress in the dark “because of the sensitivity of the matter” from July 2016 through March 2017.
The issue of the counterintelligence timing becomes an even bigger deal when contrast with the recently exposed testimony from FBI attorney Lisa Page.  Pay attention to Lisa Page and then contrast it against CIA Director Brennan’s testimony:
(more…)

Suspicious cat sparks are flying as Maria Bartiromo questions Connecticut Democrat Rep. Jim Himes about the intents and purposes of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) in the upcoming investigative sessions.
HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff is closely coordinating with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, White House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings and Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler on the pre-established impeachment road map.
Preliminary oversight subpoenas and witness testimony kicks-off immediately after the Superbowl with a February 7th hearing for Michael Cohen and Lanny Davis.

(more…)